Speech #980214134

In return for dropping "or laws." we expanded the opportunity for having certain appeals before the administrative remedies were final. But as I mentioned in my earlier statements. I would like to reflect for just a moment on exactly what the Committee on the Judiciary. which has produced H.R. 1510. has included in this bill in the area of asylum and adjudication. provisions which were sponsored by various civil liberties and human rights groups and which we think protect the rights of the individuals who are seeking asylum in this Nation. First. we create independent administrative officers by removing immigration judges who currently hear these matters from the Immigration Service. and by replacing the Board of Immigration Appeals. who currently are members who serve at the pleasure of the Attorney General. we replace that with the U.S. Immigration Board. an independent agency appointed by the President serving for 6year terms. Members can only be removed for cause. Our bill requires special administrative law judges who are especially trained to hear these questions of asylum. So we in effect eliminatethough it has not to our knowledge been exercisedany potential for exercising coercion or authority from the Office of the Attorney General to the immigration officers or from the office of the director of Immigration Service to the immigration officers who hear and adjudicate these questions of asylum. The second thing the committee did was to abolish the right of the Attorney General to make final decisions on asylum. deportation. and exclusion. Again our bill. H.R. 1510. creates more adjudicatory independence and more objectivity and. of course. more ability to make independent decisions. The third thing your committee did was to require that asylum cases be only heard by especially trained asylum judges. Currently these cases are being heard by immigration officers. I am convinced that they give an honest effort to adjudicate the cases objectively. but we go one step further. We remove them from perhaps the opportunity of being a little less than totally objective by giving them the independence of being especially trained and being administrative law judges. The fourth thing your committee did. I would remind the Members of the House. is to give the undocumented or the aliens here. those seeking refuge or asylum. the right to appeal every administrative law judge determination to the U.S. Immigration Board. which once again under our bill is made independent. it is appointed by the President. and they are subject only to be removed for cause. unlike the current U.S. Immigration Board. The fifth thing your committee did. in order to make sure that questions of asylum are adjudicated speedily but fairly and totally objectively. we mandated speed in the handling of asylum trials. We give certain limits on how long the Government can keep people incarcerated and how long the Government can take before hearing a case and how long the Government can take before it issues its final order. We mandate speedy trials. We prevent a recurrence of the type of long detention which all of us found abhorrent in Khrome North and other places in these United States in 1980 and 1981. after the people came here from Cuba and Haiti. More specifically. under this bill the asylum hearings must commence within 45 days of the filing of the asylum applications. Decisions have to be made within 30 days of the conclusion of hearings. and if these time limits are violated. the individuals who are incarcerated. who are documented as illegals. as people here wrongfully seeking asylum. would have to be released. and then from that time on they would be free as their case moves further down the line. The sixth thing your committee did was to expand and codify the rights of asylum applicants. giving them the right to crossexamine witnesses. giving them the chance to present evidence. to have translators available. to have the assistance of counsel. and to object to evidence. These are things not now guaranteed in the law. We put them in our bill.