Mr. Speaker. last year 30 House Members joined with me to sponsor H.R. 3748. a bill to include customs and immigration inspectors under the early retirement provisions of the civil service retirement provisions applicable to Federal law enforcement officers. The Office of Personnel Management [OPM) has denied this retirement status to inspectors. even though their jobs areunder anyones definitionto undertake investigations and enforce the laws of our country. I am now reintroducing this bill. because the American public is entitled to a young and vigorous work force to protect the integrity of our borders and to ensure the vigilant and energetic enforcement of our Nations laws. Including inspectors under the early retirement provisions of civil service retirement will allow this needed recruitment of young and able customs and immigration inspectors. The facts speak for themselves in this matter: First. customs inspectors make on the order of 12.000 arrests a year. more than half of them on information from the FBIs National Crime Information Center. The FBI states that customs inspectors .nake more such arrests than all other Federal agencies combined. And all of them are felony arrests. Second. immigration inspectors have lead responsibility for screening individuals entering our country. Over a half a million inadmissable aliens are intercepted at ports of entry each year. Many aliens used fraudulent or counterfeit documents.
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immigration