Speech #1010206180

I recently was quite surprised to learn that aliens now comprise 20 percent of our Federal prison population. In addition. while we do not have adequate figures as to the number of aliens in our State prisons. the judicial personnel In those States with high alien concentrations advise me that the number of aliens that come before their courts is very large. The Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] informs me that. during fiscal year 1990. it will apprehend approximately 30.000 aliens who are deportable because of their criminal records or activities. Our current detention and deportation system is simply not capable of processing and removing this frightening number of potentially dangerous aliens. and significant improvements in this system are thus essential. Most legal immigrants are hardworking. lawabiding. and usually a very positive addition to our country. Also. most illegal immigrants are not themselves involved in criminal activity. even though their entry into the United States may unintentionally promote other serious criminal activities. such as alien smuggling. drug smuggling. and documents fraud. However. we must pay special attention to those criminal aliens who do pose a serious threat to our country. I strongly believe that aliens who commit violent crimes. and aliens who have committed serious drugrelated crimes. should be deported from our country in as swift a manner as is possible. Unfortunately. the opposite is the reality today. Because of the many opportunities for delay that exist in our current deportation system. an alien convicted of a serious crime may nonetheless remain in the United States for many years while he or she pursues the available legal remedies. I do not propose in any way that we dramatically reduce the number of legal remedies available to deportable aliens. Aliens that have made an entry into the United States are surely entitled to due process. However. I believe that we should protect against the abuse of current legal remedies by placing time limitations and other reasonable requirements on the legal avenues that now exist. Thus. every deportable alien will still be able to raise his or her claim to stay in the United States. and that claim will be heard. However. the multiple raising of the same claim. and devious delays in making the claim. will no longer be tolerated. In brief. my legislation would do two things: First. it would conform the procedural rules in our deportation processes to those that apply to any citizen pursuing or defending a lawsuit under the Federal rules or civil procedure. second. it would prohibit criminal aliens from seeking certain avenues of relief from deportation that are now available to all alienscriminal or otherwise. I believe it is most essential that we pass legislation before the end of the 101st Congress regarding this serious problem of criminal aliens. I have consulted with the Department of Justice on this legislation. and I have circulated drafts of the bill to many of the organizations involved in the issue and have reviewed their comments thoroughly. My friend. the able Congressman LAMAR SMITH. the ranking member of the House Immigration Subcommittee. has already introduced identical legislation . He and I will work diligently with all of the interested Members of the House and Senate in pursuing this important legislation to enactment. I ask unanimous consent that a summary of the bill be printed in the RECORD and I encourage my colleagues to support the legislation.