Speech #1060015328

About 221.000 foreignborn criminals are in Federal. State. and local jails. About twothirds of them are illegal immigrants. Another 142.000 are on parole or probation. and are subject to being deported under the provisions of the 1996 Immigration Reform Act. An additional 161.000 have disappeared after receiving deportation orders. That means that there are approximately a half a million aliens who have committed crimes for which they are either in our prisons or are being subject to being deported. and that. Mr. Speaker. is almost the amount of people who constitute an entire congressional district. In many parts of this country. my congressional district included. no criminal court can be held without the availability of an interpreter. Driveby shootings by gangs made up of illegal immigrants has become commonplace. What is the Federal Government doing about this problem? Since 1995. the budget for the INS has been substantially increased so that it is almost $4 billion for the current fiscal year. Congress has mandated that the INS add at least 1.000 new border agents every year until the year 2001. but has this been done? Is the INS using its $4 billion to enforce the letter and spirit of the 1996 Immigration Reform Act? The answer is a resounding no. In his latest budget. President Clinton has decided to cut off funding to hire the new 1.000 agents. It seems that the Clinton administration has decided not only to undermine Congress gettough immigration laws. but to completely ignore them altogether. LI 2100 The Border Patrol is only the most obvious component of a system of law enforcement that should cover both the border and interior enforcement. Even though it continues to receive most of the attention. about 40 percent of all illegal aliens in this country came here legally and simply overstayed their visas. Therefore. interior enforcement is an integral part of protecting the integrity of our borders. Yet the INS field offices were recently told that their interior enforcement budgets would be cut by as much as 90 percent from last years level. The INSs eastern region. covering States east of the Mississippi River. was told that its enforcement budget for fiscal year 1999 has been cut from more than $10 million down to $1 million. The INS has begun a policy of releasing illegal aliens that they feel they cannot afford to detain. The INS plans to release at least 2.000 illegal immigrants. including people who have been convicted of arson. armed robbery. manslaughter. drug trafficking. alien smuggling and firearms violations. A spokesman for the INS acknowledges that detainees who get released probably will not ever be deported. since 9 out of 10 are never found again. Agents in field offices are being told. "If you need money to do a case." then simply "do not send it up." A senior investigating official said that without more detention space. there is little point in arresting people because "they get home before you do." The administrations refusal to allocate the appropriate funding for interior enforcement is not even the biggest hindrance to the enforcement of our laws. In what is called a major shift in strategy. the INS has decided to discontinue such practices as traditional workplace raids and instead emphasize only operations against foreign criminals. alien smugglers. and document fraud.