Speech #1030040232

As you can guess. Mr. President. those with legitimate political asylum claims may actually show up at the hearing. but recent statistics out of New York show that almost 60 percent of those who are released are never heard from again. Mr. President. the evidence is now overwhelming that foreigners have developed a systematic method of entering and staying in the United States that completely circumvents our immigration law. The statistics are alarming. While in 1980. only 500 aliens applied for political asylum. in 1992. that number had increased to over 103.000. Currently. almost a quarter of a million asylum cases are waiting to be decided. Yet. in 1992. fewer than 12.000 claims were processed. There can be no question that reform to this system is urgently needed. I have signed on as a cosponsor to legislation introduced by Senator SIMPSON called the Port of Entry Inspections Improvement Act of 1993. While not a final solution to this problem. this bill would take important steps to expedite the exclusion of aliens who are blatantly attempting to exploit loopholes in our immigration regulations. Under this bill. those who attempt to use fraudulent documents to enter the United States. or those who produce documents when departing a foreign nation. but destroy them en route. will immediately go before a special immigration officer who will determine if the alien has a credible fear of persecution in their country of departure. Those who have a credible fear will be given a full hearing under our current political asylum laws. However. those without a credible claim of political asylum will be immediately excluded from entering the United States. Mr.