Speech #980214188

Mr. Chairman. the committee bill already has expedited exclusion. Section 121 of H.R. 1510 authorizes an examining immigration officer to exclude an individual from entry into the United States without a hearing if he determines that the alien[1] does not present the documentation required (if any) to obtain entry to the United States. [II] does not have any reasonable basis for legal entry into the United States. and (III] does not indicate an intention to apply for asylum under section 208.... This process of expedited exclusion differs dramatically from current law which does not differentiate among aliens in exclusion proceedings. Today an individual denied entry at the border is entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. The immigration judges decision in turn can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. Judicial remedies also are available through a statutory habeas corpus routebeginning at the U.S. district court and then working ones way up within the Federal system. The Judiciary Committee. at its markup in this Congress. provided that an examining immigration officer must inform an alien of his right to counsel. at no expense to the Government. before the alien can be excluded under expedited exclusion procedures. I believe notification of the right to counsel is an important safeguard that must remain as part of the expedited exclusion process. The McCollum amendment deletes this safeguard. The charge that our bill prolongs summary exclusion is not meritorious. The McCollum amendment also eliminates a provision. added by the full Judiciary Committee in the 97th Congress. to an earlier version of this bill. according an alien the right to an administrative law judge redetermination. of an examining immigration officers expedited exclusion decision. after a "nonadversarial. summary proceeding in which the alien may appear personally." The language currently in H.R. 1510 retains the concept of abbreviated administrative treatment of frivolous claims in exclusion cases. Section 121. however. safeguards the integrity of the process by according an alien the right to a redetermination by an administrative law judge in a summary proceeding. The McCollum amendment removes this safeguard.