Speech #1030019756

For example. the State of Florida has 2.590 aliens in its prisons. The cost of Incarcerating these inmates is $39.7 million annually. Deportable criminal aliens who are released from prison may or may not be turned ovor to INS. which may or may not have the capacity to detain them pending deportation proceedings. If INS does not detain these aliens upon their release from prison. the Government loses control over them and locating and deporting them becomes very difficult. Even when criminal aliens are turned over to INS and detained. the administrative process for deportation is timeconsuming. Criminal aliens can delay the process by raising defenses to deportation. regardless of whether they are eligible for them. This process and repeated appeals can consume several years. further exacerbating the problem of limited detention capacity. We can help reduce the cost of incarceratIng criminal aliens. reduce prison overcrowding. and protect the general public from the danger of repeated offenses by aliens who commit serious crimes by expediting the deportation of criminal aliens. The bill I introduced today will help address this problem by expediting the deportation of criminal aliens who commit aggravated felonies. Aggravated felony is defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act as felonies involving murder. drug trafficking. trafficking in firearms or destructive devices. money laundering. or any crime of violence for which the term of imprisonment imposed is at least 5 years. My bill will expand this definition to include three additional classes of alien felons: First. those who have committed serious immigrationrelated crimes. such as alien smuggling and trafficking in fraudulent documents. Second. those who have participated in serious criminal activities and enterprises. but who have not themselves committed murder. trafficked in drugs. trafficked in firearms. or committed a crime of violence. and