Speech #1050094885

I would like to congratulate the gentleman from California . He has been fighting this battle for a long time. He has taken many arrows and slings on various issues. whether it Is 245(i) or other issues that have come before this body dealing with the illegal immigration issue. Those of us in California know the deleterious effect that illegal immigration is having on our society and the harmful impact it Is having on the lives of our citizens. I rise in strong support of H.R. 1493. a bill that will make permanent and build upon a highly successful INS criminal alien identification program in Anaheim. CA. This program places INS agents at the Anaheim city jail to identify illegal aliens after they have been arrested prior to arraignment. as we have heard. This provides the judge the information a judge will need to prevent a suspects release if he or she is in this country illegally. Now. Members should understand the significance of what that means. I am an original cosponsor of H.R. 1493 because I believe It is a commonsense approach in dealing with those who have broken our immigration laws. This legislation will also send a clear message to those who are here illegally that blatantly violate our immigration laws will .no longer be rewarding. In the first 10 months of this year alone. illegal aliens were suspects in 22 percent of Anaheims. this is the city we are talking about here. Anaheims murders and 53 percent of all rapes. Illegal aliens made up 1.800 of the total Anaheim arrests so far this year. It does not surprise me that those who would not respect our immigration laws would disregard the civil and criminal laws of our country as well. Without a program to identify these individuals as illegal aliens. they will be released into our society after they are arraigned. So it is imperative for us to make sure that judges understand who is in this country illegally so that they will just not be released. These people. if anybody. should be deported. Contrary to what some Members say. a major reason we have a systematic process for legal immigration to this country is to keep an eye on individuals who we are finding now showing up in our jails. Our attempts last week to defeat 245(0) were defeated. Section 245(i) helps screen out. if we would eliminate that process. illegal aliens were being screened out because they had criminal backgrounds. But with 245(i). sometimes illegal aliens end up in this society. Now we are trying to do this to ensure that there is an identification process. And one last word. and that is. I congratulate the gentleman from California and the gentleman from California who have worked so hard on this. The INS. under this administration. has been putting up roadblocks for us to try to get these illegal aliens in our jails from being deported from this country. This legislation is a good first step toward deporting illegal immigrants who are committing crimes and attacking our citizens.