Speech #1030083268

We clothed them. housed them. and fed them. We put them through drug treatment and job training programs to make them better citizens. Then we deported them. Currently. the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service cannot even begin the required hearings to deport most criminal aliens until after they have completed their sentences. When these hearings eventually order an aliens deportation no sooner than a year and another fifteen thousand taxpayer dollars later. the INS finally expels them from our country. I am pleased to report this comprehensive Republican crime bill has incorporated the provisions of legislation I introduced and 59 of my colleagues cosponsored to expedite the deportation and subsequent exclusion of criminal aliens. The bills provisions allow the INS to begin deportation hearings immediately following an aliens criminal conviction. Then. when an order of deportation Is issued after the conclusion of all related appeals. and the appropriate sentencing authority concurs. the INS could expel these criminal aliens before they finish their sentences. before they return to our streets and commit more crimes. Mr. Speaker. all criminals deserve just punishment. but our limited prison capacity forces us to release many prisoners early. In my State of Florida. 1 In 4 of these early releases ends up back in jail after committing another crime. Given these realities. it makes considerable more sense to release criminals we can deport. rather than those who will return to our streets and commit more crimes. Deporting criminal aliens will save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. reduce prison overcrowding. and forestall the early release of violent criminals. Of course. the core of the prison overcrowding problem in Florida and across the Nation isnt too many aliens. or too few prisons. its too much crime. Now Congress has the chance to respond.