Speech #960311655

Mr. President. the September 17. 1980. Washington Post carried an article by Donnel Nunes about the decision of the Attorney General to ban the Immigration and Naturalization Service raids designed to ferret out illegal aliens. The article points out that the INS is angered by the ban and the possibility that the Attorney General will extend it even though there is no demonstrated need to do so. While this misguided concern about the rights of illegal aliens may come as a surprise to some people. it is just another example of an illogical and counterproductive policy on illegal aliens. For reasons which are known only to those within the Department of Justice. there has been a longstanding policy which is designed to reduce the enforcement of our immigration laws against illegal aliens. Within the last 2 or 3 years. the number of internal investigative officers at INS was reduced by about onethird. These are the officers who apprehend illegal aliens once they are across our borders. This shortsightedness was made very clear when the President ordered the review of the status of all Iranians in this country. In order to make this determination. border patrol officers had to be taken off of our already underpatrolled borders to help in this internal investigation. Now. this decreased number of INS officers is being denied the most effective tool they have for enforcing our immigration laws against illegal aliens. In essence. the Attorney General has adopted a policy for illegal aliens which says that if they can get past our very thin line of border patrol officers. the Federal Government will not make a serious effort to enforce our immigration laws against them. In other words. the U.S. Attorney General. who is responsible for enforcing all of our Federal laws. has devised an enforcement policy which gives sanctuary to a special class of individuals who knowingly and willingly violate our laws.