Speech #1040267291

I rise in support of this bill today. It is a very. very fine product. H.R. 2202 is a much needed boost to our efforts against illegal immigration. Included in the bill are 5.000 new border patrol agents. more INS agents to track alien smugglers and visa overstayers. more detention space for illegal aliens. and the list goes on and on. I am most pleased that many of the asylum reform provisions that we have needed for years and I worked on with the gentleman from Texas for years are now in this bill. We have very generous asylum laws but now we are going to have provisions that make it a lot more difficult for somebody to come here and claim that they have a fear of persecution if they are sent back home to their native country. when they really do not. and be able to overstay and stay and get lost in our country and never get kicked out. Instead we have got a provision that I think is very fair for summary and expedited exclusion which. by the way. is already law as a result of the antiterrorism bill earlier this year but which we are making much more livable and a better product today. Also we have in here some efforts to try to get document fraud under control. We lessen the number of documents used in employer sanctions where we attempt to cut off the magnet of jobs by a 1986 provision that makes it illegal for an employer to knowingly hire an illegal alien. There were far too many documents that could be produced to get a job. Now we have reduced that number to a manageable number.