Speech #1050089196

Mr. President. I would like today to speak briefly about an issue that pertains in large measure to the Subcommittee on Immigration. which I chair. In the last several months. a number of incidents have come to our attention involving the pursuit by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of aliens. sometimes legal immigrants with American citizen spouses and children. for deportation based on one crime committed years ago. These crimes have on occasion been crimes like forgery. and some individuals have apparently been pursued where they did not even have a conviction. I would like to make a few brief remarks on this because I. along with Republicans and Democrats. made efforts last Congress through the illegal immigration bill to improve the INS poor record of removing deportable criminal aliens. Our goal was to deport convicted criminal aliens starting with the thousands currently serving in our jails and prisons. I believe that lawabiding people. not hardened criminals. should be filling our priceless immigration slots. Yet. until last years bill. only a tiny percentage of deportable criminal aliens were actually being deported. This happened because of a number of weaknesses in the immigration enforcement system. First. there were only very limited efforts to identify deportable criminal aliens. particularly in our State and local prison systems. This meant that the INS was not even learning about the vast majority of deportable criminal aliens. Second. where deportable criminal aliens were identified and where deportation proceedings were begun. those aliens were frequently released into the community and. not surprisingly. were never heard from again. Finally. in those rare instances in which deportation proceedings were begun and criminal aliens were detained. they were able to take advantage of delaying tactics and loopholes in our immigration law to significantly increase their chances of staying in the country or. at a minimum. lengthening their stays. In addition. the INS was often limited in its ability to remove criminal aliens due to the definition of deportable crimes under the old laws. Given the reality of the plea bargaining process. we wanted to broaden INSs ability to deport serious criminals who should be deported where they might have pled down to a lesser offense. We took steps to address each of these flaws in the system. We increased INSs resources so they could identify deportable criminal aliens. We enhanced detention requirements to reduce the risk of flight. We removed criminals abilities to delay deportation. and we closed loopholes in our immigration laws. We also increased the number of crimes for which criminal aliens could be deported. both to reflect the realities of our criminal justice system and to enhance the INSs abilities to go after hardcore criminals who should not be permitted to remain in the country. Through all of this. we had assumed that the INS would focus their limited resources and manpower on deporting more serious criminals who had more recently committed crimes. especially those currently in prison. However. either because of an inability to set priorities. difficulty in interrelating the many different sections of the new immigration bill. or a combination of both. the INS seems to be pursuing some seemingly minor cases aggressivelyby even. we are told. combing closed municipal court cases and old probation recordswhile letting some hardened criminals in jail go free. Accordingly. I will be conducting investigative hearings of the Immigration Subcommittee to determine why this is happening and what is needed to clearly establish the right priorities. This particularly concerns me given the INSs continuing inability to detain and process deportable criminal aliens despite all the enhanced enforcement authority we gave them in last years immigration bill. Let me speak for a moment about a report issued just last month by the inspector general of the Department of Justice. which provides just one example of the troubling concerns about the INSs handling of criminal aliens. The inspector generals report dealt only with the Krome detention facility in Miami. which has attracted a great deal of attention and which ought to be one of the better run detention facilities at this point.