Speech #1040020703

Mr. Chairman. H.R. 668 makes several amendments to the immigration laws to further address the problem of aliens who commit serious crimes while they are in the United States. While several bills in the last Congress began to address this problem. they have not gone far enough. Of particular concern is the recent increase in alien smuggling crime. Organized crime rings in this country. with ties to others abroad. have developed to prey upon illegal immigrants who want to come to the United States. These criminals extort large sums from these illegal immigrants in return for passage to the United States and for the fraudulent documents they need to obtain entry. In many cases. these illegal immigrants cannot pay these fees and. once they arrive here. are forced into involuntary servitude. prostitution. and other crimes in order to repay these fees. In some cases. such as the "Golden Venture" in New York City. the attempt to smuggle these illegals goes tragically wrong and people die. H.R. 668 attempts to deal with this problem by designating a number of offenses common to organized immigration crime as "aggravated felonies." Aliens who commit aggravated felonies can be deported from the country following their incarceration. These changes will enable the Government to deport those aliens who commit alien smuggling crimes after they serve their incarceration. The bill also strengthens the expedited deportation procedures of existing law. These procedures streamline the deportation process with respect to criminal aliens who are not legal permanent residents. Under H.R. 668. aliens who enter the country as permanent residents on a conditional basis and then commit serious crimes will also be placed into this expedited deportation process. The bill also tightens one of the defenses to deportation. Under present law. persons who are legal permanent residents and have lived in the country for 7 years may assert their years of residence as a defense to deportation. but this defense does not apply if they have been convicted of an aggravated felony and served 5 years in prison. Unfortunately. for all practical purposes. the Government must wait 5 years to begin deportation proceedings against these criminals. Not only does this result in administrative inefficiency but. on occasion. allows criminal aliens to escape deportation when their incarceration ends before the deportation process is completed. H.R. 668 would remedy those problems by allowing the Government to bring deportation proceedings against the alien whenever the alien is sentenced to 5 or more years in prison. regardless of the time actually served. H.R. 668 will also allow the Government to deport aliens who have resided in the country for less than 10 years and who are convicted of any felony crime involving moral turpitude. Under current law. persons convicted of crimes of moral turpitude can only be deported if they have been sentenced to. or serve. at least 1 year in prison. Finally. in order to help Federal law enforcement officials combat organized immigration crime. the bill adds a number of immigrationrelated offenses as predicate acts under the Rico statute. one of the principal tools that Federal law enforcement officials use to fight organized crime. And to complement this provision. the bill also gives Federal law enforcement officials the authority to utilize wiretaps to investigate certain immigrationrelated crime. Mr. Chairman. this bill is modest in length but is a sizable step forward in the Governments effort to fight alien smuggling and to rid ourselves of those noncitizens who commit serious crimes in our country. By removing from our society those aliens who do not respect our laws. we make our streets safer for citizens and noncitizens alike. I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill. Mr.