Speech #1030048803

I am honored to have a distinguished Member of the delegation from our State in the Speakers chair. Mr. Speaker. at the end of last week I came to this well to speak of the enormous problems plaguing our Immigration and Naturalization Service in dealing with people seeking political asylum. and the larger context of enforcing our national immigration laws. Just to recap: INS knows of approximately 1.2 million illegal entries into this country every year. officials estimate the actual number of people coming into this country illegally to be closer to 3 million. In the specific case of Haiti. since the military coup almost 40.000 Haitians fled Haiti seeking refuge in the United States. Of those. more than 10.000 were granted parole and are now in this country90 percent of them in Floridaawaiting processing of their asylum claims. We are told that those claims are being processed with the help of nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] at a rate of 1 a monthwhich translates into more than 800 years needed to process all 10.500. Since I last spoke on this issue. the Supreme Court has upheld the current United States policy of intercepting Haitians in international waters and repatriating them. It has been reported that this means we have turned our backs on the Haitians. This is simply untrue. There remains In full force a process for Haitians seeking entry into the United States through the visa process at our consulate In PortauPrince. I continue to believe that the Haiti problem must be solved in Haiti. not by encouraging Haitians to take to the seas in leaky boats to make the treacherous journey to America. Another element of this problem involves the HIVInfected Haitians recently transferred from Guantanamo Base in Cuba into the United States. As a result of unilateral action by a Federal judge in New York. I am deeply troubled by this decision. and by the inexplicable silence we are getting from the Clinton administration regarding our concerns. By not immediately challenging the judges order to admit the HIVInfected Haitians. the Clinton administration has left this country open to a dangerous precedent of immigration policy set by judges. not legislators. Bringing these HIVinfected people into this country is in direct violation of legislation recently passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton. This ruling tells wouldbe immigrants all over the world that. it you can get a loot in the door. even under a fraudulent political refugee asylum request. you are probably home free. I and over 40 of my colleagues urged the President to seek an immediate stay and appeal the decision. So farsilence. There is never a cop around when you need one syndrome. Second. immigration is clearly a national problem. For too long. citizens of States like Florida have disproportionately borne the brunt of the financial and social costs of resettling immigrants. I have joined an effort with my Florida colleague. Mr.