Speech #1020184864

That is a terrible way to greet business travellers and foreign tourists. especially when you consider that international travel reduces our trade deficit by nearly $5 billion each year. At the same time. American airports have become virtually open borders for illegal aliens. What happens is that an alien boards a plane destined for the United States. either without documents or with fraudulent documents. The INSs policy Is to detain such Individuals upon arrival In the United States. pending deportation. Because the INS lacks sufficient detention space. however. many such arrivals are paroled Into the community with Instructions to report several months In the future for a hearing before an INS officer. Most simply disappear. Now that word has gotten out about this situation. the number of undocumented arrivals has mushroomed. from a few thousand 5 year ago to 37.500 last year. In addition to circumventing Immigration laws. these Individuals are also clogging airports still further. Today I am Introducing a bill that would deal with both of these problems. The bill would establish INS preinspection stations at overseas airports. so undocumented aliens are screened out before they get to the United States. That saves on detention costs. maintains the integrity of our Immigration laws. and enables speedy processing of legitimate passengers here in the United States. The bill would also make permanent the pilot Visa Waiver Program under which visitors from selected lowrisk countries can travel to the United States without first having to obtain a Visa from a U.S. consular office overseas. This program has proven extremely successful in making it convenient for legitimate businesspeople and tourists to travel here. and it Is time to make it permanent In addition. the bill would restore the citizen bypass procedure that INS suspended during the Persian Gulf war. The bill also contains a number of provisions that would enable the INS to fully modernize its examinations process by taking full advantage of new technologies.