Speech #1040190457

Mr. Chairman. included in the en bloc amendment offered by Chairman SMITH is an amendment I offered that will express the sense of Congress that the mission statement of the Immigration and Naturalization Service should include a provision that the INS has the responsibility to detect. apprehend. and deport illegal aliens. particularly those involved in drug trafficking or other criminal activity. Like many other communities around the Nation. the people in my district are having a critical problem with illegal aliens dealing in drugs. that are involved in criminal activities. especially drug trafficking. In 1995 alone. Salt Lake City police arrested over 3.600 people for felonylevel narcotic violations. of which 80 percent were illegal aliens. Because of the lack of sufficient funding and staffing. the local INS office has been unable to handle this volume of cases and has had to focus almost exclusively on the worst offenders. I would like to submit for the RECORD a letter sent to me by Captain Roy Wasden of the Salt Lake Police Department that outlines the difficulties that the police are having dealing with this problem. In a drug sweep early this year. Salt Lake police arrested 193 people for felony narcotic violations. of which 156 were illegal aliens. The INS tried to help Salt Lake police process the illegal aliens. but they did not have enough staff and ran out of funds. As a result the suspects were back on the streets. Sadly. that action had a tragic result. One of the illegal aliens arrested and released. later shot and killed Diane Purper. a mother of five. over a minor traffic dispute. Since the killer had been arrested four times prior to this shooting. perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided if the INS would have had the manpower to do their job and deport this individual after his first arrest. As the INS works to detect. apprehend. and deport illegal aliens. a much grater emphasis should be given to arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment so that the INS can have a clear mandate from the House that we must rid our communities of these criminal elements.