Speech #980043278

Mr. President. I commend the work that has been done by the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee in simplifying the administrative procedures for asylum review. I think important progress has been made. In arguing for the elimination of judicial review from the asylum process. proponents have said this is necessary because judicial review will result in delays and in the creation of huge backlogs. Well. Mr. President. this simply is not true today. and there is no sound reason to believe it will be so in the years to come. Currently. of the more than 150.000 asylum claims pending. less than 2 percent of these are in the courts. The facts are that the current backlog is a consequence of the failure to provide sufficient funds and personnel to administer the asylum process. What we have today are administrative delays. not judicial delays. This has been confirmed by the study completed last December by the Immigration and Naturalization Servicethe conclusions of which I will enter into the RECORD later. According to the INS report: One question frequently asked is. "is the current law with regard to asylum adjudication workable?" INS says: We do not know the answer because INS was never able to implement fully the asylum provisions of the 1980 refugee act .... additionally. at the very time when the new asylum provisos went into effect in 1980. the Government actively encouraged the filing of irrelevant and frivolous claims. Further. the Government publicized its inability to process this large volume thereby exacerbating the problem. The media also mistakenly publicized the view that all aliens were utilizing the multiple layer of appeals possible under the current law when in fact only about 2 percent of the cases. mostly class action suits. went beyond the administrative appeal machinery.