Speech #1040206034

A study by our subcommittee staff estimate that there are about 450.000 criminal aliens in all parts of our criminal justice system including Federal and State prisons. local jails. probation. and parole. Incredibly. criminal aliens now account for an all time high of 25 percent of the Federal prison population. Under current law. aliens who commit aggravated felonies or crimes of moral turpitude are deportable. But last year only about 4 percent of the estimated total number of criminal aliens in the United States were deported. The law is not being enforced in part because it is too complex with too many levels of appeal. It needs to be simplified. The law is also not being enforced in part because INS does not have its act together. The INS is unable to even identify most of the criminal aliens who clog our State and local Jails before these criminals are released back onto our streets. As things now stand. many criminal aliens are released on bond by the INS while the deportation process is pending. It is not surprising that many skip bond and never show up for their hearings. especially in light of the fact that the INS makes little effort to locate them when they do abscond. In 1992 alone. nearly 11.000 aliens convicted of serious felonies failed to show up for their deportation hearings. It is safe to assume that many of them walk our streets today. A frustrated INS official described the current state of affairs aptly when he said of criminal aliensand I quote-"only the stupid and honest get deported." The others abuse the system with impunity. Ironically. criminal aliens who have served their time and are fighting their deportation routinely received work permits from the INS. which allow them to get Jobs while their appeals are pending. One INS deportation officer told the subcommittee staff that he spends only about 5 percent of his time looking for criminal aliens who have absconded. because he must spend most of his time processing work permits for criminal aliens with pending deportation proceedings. This is an outrageous situation. Although. our investigation found that the INS is not adequately responding to the criminal alien problem. the INS does not deserve all the blame.