Speech #1040197337

Importantly. this bill will assist our Government in its primary responsibility. protecting U.S. borders and enforcing U.S. laws. After all. we are a nation of laws. We cannot turn a blind eye to those who break our immigration laws. We simply cannot afford to anymore. We must gain greater control over our Nations borders. prevent illegal entry and smuggling. and detain and swiftly deport criminal aliens. S. 1664 will help achieve these objectives. Increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. and improving technology and equipment at the border has been one of my priorities. so I was particularly pleased that the committee adopted my amendments to train 1.000 new Border Patrol agents through the year 2000 and to require. as recommended by Sandia Labs in 1993. the construction of a tripletier deterrence fence along the San Diego border. and to increase the number of INS detention spaces to 9.000 by the year 1997. This increase in detention space will raise by 66 percent detention space available to the INS to detain criminal aliens awaiting deportation and other aliens who are at risk of not showing up for deportation or other proceedings. The bill also requires the Attorney General to report to Congress on how many excludable or deportable aliens within the last 3 years have been released onto our Nations streets because of a lack of detention facilities. In addition. the bill allows the Attorney General to acquire U.S. Government surplus equipment to improve detection. interdiction. and reduction of illegal immigration. including drug trafficking. and allows volunteers to assist in processing at ports of entry and in criminal alien removal. These provisions will go a long way toward effective control and operation of our Nations borders. In addition to more effectively controlling our border. further modification of our laws is needed to create disincentives for individuals to enter the United States illegally. I plan to offer two additional amendments to deal with this issue. The first would amend section 246(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. so that illegal aliens who become eligible for an immigrant visa can no longer attain the visa by paying a fee that lifts the requirement to depart the United States. Section 245(1) encourages people who are awaiting an immigrant visa to jump illegally ahead of others. simply by paying a fee. Senator HurcMsoN and I also plan to offer an amendment that. with a number of exceptions. would exclude for 10 years those who have entered without inspection from obtaining a visa. S. 1664 also makes clear that you cannot skirt the law by entering the country legally and then overstaying a visa. Another amendment I offered that the subcommittee adopted requires individuals who have overstayed their visas to return home to obtain another visa. period. And. the last successful amendment regarding overstayers. offered by Senator ABRAHAM and cosponsored by me. requires visa overstayers to return home for 3 years before applying for another visa. While this last amendment goes far. I plan to offer an amendment with Senator HtrrCHISON that would. with a number of exceptions. exclude for 10 years those individuals who have overstayed their visas for more than a year. For those individuals who come to this country and commit crimesand there are 450.000 criminal In jails and at large in this countrythere are provisions in the bill to keep them off our streets and deport more quickly. I am pleased that a bill I introduced last year. to encourage the President to renegotiate prison transfer treaties so that aliens convicted of crimes can no longer choose whether or not they serve out thbir sentences here or in their home country. was added to the bill. Also passed was my amendment to advise the President to renegotiate these treaties so that if a transferred prisoner returns to the United States prior to the completion of a sentence. the U.S. sentence is not discharged. The committee also passed a number of amendments I cosponsored. offered by Senator ABRAHAM. that strengthen the detainment and deportation of criminal aliens in other ways. There are a number of other provisions in this bill that are important. including provisions to streamline the system by which asylum seekers apply to stay In the United States. While refugees are still offered important protections. abuse of the system will be largely curtailed by a new system allowing specially trained asylum officers at ports of entry to determine if refuge seekers have a credible fear of persecution. If they do. then they go through the process of establishing a wellfounded fear of persecution in order to stay in the United States. By allowing these especially trained officers to make decisions at ports of entry. it will be more difficult for individuals to simply fill out an asylum application. be released into the streets. and possibly never show up for asylum proceedings. The bill we are debating this week includes provisions that Senator SIMPSON and his staff have worked hard to develop and protect. Many of them are a response to the Jordan Commission recommendations. It includes bipartisan provisions on which Senators from both sides of the aisle have diligently worked. As we begin to consider this important bill. we have to remember that. unless we protect our borders and insist that our immigration laws are taken seriously. we undermine the law. and that undermines the United States as a land of opportunity for allboth foreign and native born. My grandparents immigrated to the United States from Holland. I think they would be concerned about how our immigration system works today. The American dream must be kept alive for citizens and for those who came here legally. A government not in control of its own borders is not serving the public well. I urge my colleagues to pass a bill that will address these important problems. Again. I very sincerely thank the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee for his long years of work in this area and for his willingness to work with everybody on the committee to craft the best bill possible so that he can begin to deal with these serious problems.