Speech #1020223449

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. this bill is another installment in our efforts to prevent illegal immigration. In the past few years. a new form of this problem has emerged: Illegal immigration by commercial airliner. The way it works is this: The person gets on a plane headed 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. But because the INS lacks sufficient detention space. the wouldbe immigrant is typiceolly paroled into the community with instructions to report several months later 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 years ago to 37.500 last year. These individuals are flouting the immigration laws. putting themselves at the head of the line while other folks wait for years to immigrate. Worst of all. these airport arrivals are making a mockery of the asylum process. Many of them make asylum claims. even though they have no basis at all for doing so. simply to get into a process that they can stretch out for years. and to get the work permit to which asylum applicants are entitled. The U.S. commitment to refugees is going to be more crucial than even in the years ahead. with ethnic conflict boiling over in trouble spots around the world. We cannot afford to have fraudulent claimants taking up valuable spaces and eroding public support for the entire refugee program. This bill would counter this unfortunate trend by setting up preinspection stations at six of the overseas airports that have sent us the largest numbers of fraudulent passengers. These stations will enable immigration and naturalization service inspectors to screen out undocumented passengers before they get to the United States. Not only will this help maintain the integrity of our immigration and asylum laws. but it will also be cost effective. Passengers inspected overseas will not have to be inspected upon arrival. so more inspectors will not be needed. and the detention and legal costs associated with fraudulent passengers here in the United States will be eliminated. In addition to the preinspection stations. this bill also tackles two other problems.