Speech #1030118438

Mr. President. U.S. immigration policies and enforcement of those policies are not longer working in the best interests of our country. Congress should make comprehensive reform of immigration laws a top priority for next year. There is a role our country must play in allowing a reasonable level of immigration. However. we must face the fact that problems associated with immigration. especially illegal immigration and political asylum. are out of control. Today. I am asking the Senate to approve two immigration amendments which Senators BIDEN and HATCH have agreed to accept as part of their managers amendment. The first amendment I put together with Senator SIMPSON and others. I thank Senator SIMPSON and his staff for their immense help. I also thank the Clinton administration for their assistance and contributions. The first amendment has two major components which hopefully will close loopholes in immigration laws: (1) Procedures to speed up the deportation of criminal aliens convicted of aggravated felonies by combining their deportation hearing into their sentencing hearing. Instead of first releasing the alien from prison and later holding a separate hearing as is being done now. often months or even a year or more later. those who break U.S. laws could be deported immediately after serving their prison sentence. (2) Elimination of the granting of automatic work authorization permits to those who enter the United States and apply for political asylum. Under the expedited deportation procedure. we are reforming and toughening the process under which convicted criminal aliens are deported back to their country of origin after serving their prison sentence. Under current immigration law. an alien who has been convicted of an aggravated felony. is presumed to be deportable from the United States. This means that in virtually every case. once an alien is convicted of an aggravated felony. a very serious crime. and the alien has served his or her prison time. they should be deported. This is not happening. The law envisions that a deportation hearing will be held while the alien is still in prison. and a judge will rule on deportation. Instead. the system is so bogged down. no hearing is held while the alien is serving prison time. and the criminal alien is released to INS. The INS is forced to again detain the already convicted alien at taxpayer expense until the system clears for a hearing to be scheduled. Why is a separate deportation proceeding needed? Due Process? The alien received due process at the time he or she was sentenced for the aggravated felony. A second hearing can be avoided by combining the deportation hearing with the alien sentencing. A Federal judge can enter a final order of deportation at the same time the judge sentences the alien for committing an aggravated felony. It currently costs the taxpayer an average of $60 to $70 per day to simply house convicted alien felons pending deportation. after completion of their prison sentence. Not to mention the cost of the immigration judges. court staff. attorneys. interpreters. and facilities necessary to institute the deportation proceedings. Such a system must come to an end. Of the 36.000 aliens that were deported last year. 18.000 of those were criminal aliens. There are 16.000 criminal aliens currently in our Federal prisons at taxpayer expense. and 41.000 criminal aliens in our State prisons. Immigrating to America and joining our society is a privilege. not a right. and Congress should say clearly that if an alien is convicted of a felony. the alien forfeits that privilege and will be deported immediately upon completion of the prison sentence. A few weeks ago. Attorney General Janet Reno was quoted as saying the Federal Government should take more responsibility for deporting illegal aliens held in State prisons. Under this amendment. the Attorney General can use an expedited process to speed up deportation of criminal aliens serving time in State and Federal prisons. Also under my first amendment is the elimination of the granting of automatic work authorization permits to those who enter the United States and apply for political asylum. Last year there were 150.000 asylum applicants who under current law get automatic work authorization permits before their asylum application hearings. regardless of the merit of their claim for asylum. Under our amendment. a political asylum applicant can only obtain work permits by authorization of the Attorney General. I will also ask that report language indicate that it is understood that such authorization will be the exception rather than the rule. and that permission to work only be granted in the most urgent of circumstances. My second amendment. also accepted as part of the managers amendment. permits law enforcement authorities access to immigration records to obtain information necessary to locate anti identify an alien for criminal law enforcement purposes. In the recent case of Mir Aimal Kanzi. the man responsible for the tragic walkby shootings outside the CIA facility here in the Washington area. law enforcement authorities were unable to access Mr. Kanzis naturalization file. A provision in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act requires strict confidentiality with respect to which persons and authorities can access an aliens application. The law says a fine and or prison sentence will be imposed upon anyone. including the Attorney General. who releases information from legalization files for purposes other than processing an application. Surely any privacy concerns that led to the passage of a provision such as this did not mean to preclude access to a file for purposes of apprehending a known terrorist.