Speech #1030041412

Madam Speaker. the freighter laden with illegal aliens that ran aground off Rockaway Beach in New York City is but the most recent signal that our immigration policy is desperately in need of repair. This ship was one of a growing number of foreign vessels that have begun to ply their highly lucrative illegal trade. Loading up their human cargo in coastal provinces of southern China. this ship offered 300 or more Chinese the hope of reaching America. with each passenger paying up to $30.000 to be smuggled into the United States. Instead. at least eight of the illegal aliens drowned while swimming for shore. and the remainder will be held in custody until their asylum review is completed. What we are seeing is the manipulation of U.S. immigration law on a grand scale. It has become big business. At our international airports and in our harbors. tens of thousands of illegal aliens are being smuggled into the country annually. The ship that ran aground in New York City is the 24th vessel that has been intercepted since August 1991. And for every ship that we catch. others manage to slip through. According to the INS and FBI. organized crime has become heavily involved in the smuggling of illegal aliens. Indeed. the head of the INS in Now York recently said that: "While we will ensure protection to bona fide political refugees. we will not permit criminal syndicates to flaunt our immigration laws by bringing economic migrants here illegally." Unfortunately. because of a gaping loophole in U.S. immigrating policy. this strong warning rings hollow. All an alien has to do is reach U.S. soil and demand political asylum. No matter how patently fraudulent the claim might be. all an alien has to do is utter the words political asylum. Then the illegal aliens cannot be deported. They must go through a lengthy review process that can take several years. And most of those who start on the political asylum review process simply disappear before their case is adjudicated. Madam Speaker. our immigration policies have become the laughing stock of the international criminal world. As this Member has urged before from the well of this House. it is time to give our INS officers the power of summary exclusion. Our INS officers are begging to be given summary exclusion powers. It is well past time for C"5O9 O97 Vol 130 (14.9)5r the Judiciary Committee to act on these summary exclusion provisions of the law. and to restore integrity to the notion of political asylum. This Member strongly urges the adoption of the McCollum Immigration Reform Act. H.R. 1355. This is not a partisan issue. It is an American issue and a crisis situation. I ask my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to ignore the selfserving arguments of the greedy private immigration lawyers who resist any effectual reform. and to get down to business and give the INS the law they demand.