Speech #1050094890

I enjoyed working with my colleague in the drafting of this bill as it addresses issues which seriously affect our home State. This bill will require the Attorney General to establish a program in local prisons to identify. prior to arraignment. criminal aliens and persons unlawfully present in the United States. The bill directs the Attorney General to detail Immigration and Naturalization Service employees to selected city and county incarceration facilities. This program is different from the Institutional Hearing Program [IHP]. which I also strongly support. where INS employees are stationed at State and Federal penal institutions to identify aliens convicted of deportable crimes. The IHP exists so that deportable criminal aliens can be placed into deportation proceedings while incarcerated. and then removed from the United States upon completion of their sentence. H.R. 1493 will compliment the IHP as it will help identify deportable aliens AFTER arrest and BEFORE arraignment. This prearraignment process will identify unlawful residents and persons previously convicted of deportable crimes even if they are never tried for or convicted of the offenses for which they have been arrested. These individuals can then be turned over to the INS for removal from the United States. This bill is subject to appropriations and participating facilities are phased in over a 4year period. The CBO has estimated that this program will cost between $40 million and $200 million over the 19992002 period. Im sure we can all agree that funding directed toward identifying and deporting criminal aliens is well spent. Illegal immigration is a Federal problem. but its impact is felt primarily on the local level. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to allocate resources to combat the many hardships which are in turn thrust upon those at the local level. I will continue to fight for programs which recognize this simple. but vital fact.