Speech #1040070300

Under current law. only aggravated felonsthose committing the most serious offenses--are placed in expedited proceedings. Under this section. however. all criminal aliens must be removed within 30 days. whether they are murderers or petty shoplifters. An immigrant with an American citizen wife and children sentenced to 1year probation for minor tax evasion and fraud would be subject to this procedure. And under this provision. he would be treated the same as ax murderers and drug lords. INS is required to detain him. He gets a quick deportation hearing from an immigration judge in the Justice Department and. he is out within 30 daysno judicial review. no nothing. Over the past 2 years. the President and Congress have increased substantially the number of immigration officers and immigration judges to handle these cases. As a result. over the next year. the administration will double the number of criminal aliens deported to more than 58.000. But even with the additional funds. resources are still limited. The Justice Department would be required to divert resources from the Border Patrol. from naturalization. and from other important activities to accommodate this provision. The Immigration Subcommittee is now considering legislation which will reform the criminal alien definitions. We should allow that process to proceed. rather than make premature and drastic changes in the current definition and due process. The second way in which this provision harms law enforcement is that it requires the Attorney General to detain all those in this broadened category of criminal aliens. with no allowance for those whose home countries will not or cannot take them back.