Speech #1030044173

Mr. Speaker. last week this Member addressed the House about the Golden Venture. the freighter laden with illegal aliens that ran aground in the district of our colleague. the gentleman from Now York . Since that time two more ships with yet another 300 illegals from China were intercepted in San Francisco. And these are not isolated incidents. Indeed. the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] will tell you that. at any given time. they are tracking some 20 ships known or suspected to be smuggling illegals into the United States. And these are just the ships they know aboutl The burden imposed on American taxpayers by the massive numbers of illegal immigrants is mindboggling. In New York City alone. there is a backlog of 62.000 individuals facing deportation proceedings. Guess how many can be found for deportation? These are just the individuals that have been caught and are requesting political asylum. And. because they have uttered the magic words "political asylum." they are currently entitled to an immediate green card. various welfare benefits. and full judicial review. Under the present system. individuals know that our immigration laws can be manipulated. They know that. no matter how flimsy a claim of political asylum may be. they stand a great chance of remaining in the United States. What is desperately needed is the ability to prevent patently fraudulent claimants from clogging the asylum review process. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is begging for summary exclusion powers. Mr. Speaker. there is no realistic alternative to granting the INS summary exclusion authority. Some Members. like our distinguished colleague. the gentleman from New York have argued that preinspection stations at the leading international airports could screen out the illegal immigrants. For a variety of reasons. that approach simply will not work. as demonstrated by the INS experiment in Londons Heathrow Airport. The organized gangs that control the flow of illegal immigrants will simply switch and use airports that do not have a preinspection station. Moreover. preinspection wont do anything to stem the tens of thousands who are coming by ship. Indeed. the State Dopartment recently testified to the Foreign Affairs Committee that proinspection stations Just wont work.