Speech #1010246308

Mr. President. I am pleased that a package of criminal alien amendments I have long sought will be included as part of Immigration Act of 1990. Most of these provisions were passed last year in the Senate as part of the bill to implement the Presidents 1989 drug strategy and earlier this year as part of the omnibus crime bill. These amendments tighten existing laws regarding the categorization and deportation of aliens who commit serious crimescrimes defined in the AntiDrug Abuse Act of 1988 as "aggravated felonies." The aggravated felony aliens provisions in the 1988 act were important steps toward solving a major problem faced by Federal and State criminal justice systemsthe problem of how to expeditiously remove from our streets those aliens who are convicted of murder. or trafficking in drugs or weapons. There are thousands of such aliens in our criminal justice system. and countless others who have somehow escaped justice or deportation. The 1988 act gave the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of Justice new tools to close the loopholes through which criminal aliens were escaping. I would like now to reiterate the specific provisions we passed in 1988 and explain how my amendments would improve them. In 1988. Congress defined aggravated felony aliens and wrote specific guidelines for the INS to detain and deport these aliens. We told INS that these serious criminals had to be held accountable for their crimes. serve their full sentence. and. once their sentence was complete. they must be taken into immediate custody by the INS in order to prevent them from disappearing prior to deportation. The 1988 act requires that the INS process these criminals as quickly as possible to effectuate their deportation. And finally. Congress mandated tough penalties if the criminal alien returns to the United States. The amendments I am proposing will: Extend the definition of aggravated felony to include aliens convicted of like State crimes. codifying a recent ruling of the Immigration Board of Appeals. If enacted. this provision will allow States to turn over criminal aliens directly into INS custody. and require the INS to implement expedited deportation proceedings. Require the Attorney General to make information about deportable aliens available to Federal. State. and local law enforcement agencies. Remove aggravated felony aliens from the category of aliens eligible for suspended deportation or automatic stays of deportation. Apply aggravated felony procedures to "excludable" aliens. Make technical amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act consistent with the provisions of the 1988 act. Of the 2.840 criminal aliens the Florida statewide prosecutors office could provide me information on. 657 were convicted on cocaine traffickingover 25 percent. This number indicates the magnitude of the problem and the urgency of the need to provide States with relief. It is the Federal Governments responsibility to protect our borders. If the Government fails to prevent dangerous aliens from crossing our borders. it then becomes the responsibility of the Federal Government to help the States cope with the crimes and the costs of prosecuting criminal aliens. Finally. the Federal Government must make sure that dangerous aliens are not on the streets. not allowed to commit new crimes. and not caught in a lengthy deportation process. In my opinion. the Federal Government has not been successful in any of these areas. I question particularly the Department of Justices commitment in carrying out the provisions of the 1988 AntiDrug Abuse Act relating to aggravated felony aliens.