Mr. Chairman. the amendment that I am offering today. which the gentleman has reserved a point of order against. would prohibit the use of any funds in this act or any other act for the release of criminal aliens from detention centers run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This would only apply to criminal aliens subject to mandatory detention who are pending removal from the United States. With the passage of the 1996 immigration reform law. Congress and the President placed a high priority on removing noncitizen criminals from the United States. This bipartisan reform law mandated detention of criminal aliens until their removal and provided the Immigration and Naturalization Service with two additional years to implement the law. It is worth noting that since 1996. Congress has doubled the funding for detention and deportation to $730 million. In February of this year. reports surfaced that the INS planned to release criminal aliens. many of whom are being held on felony charges. Specifically. the INS issued a memorandum on January 8. 1999. which alerted field offices of a shortfall in detention space funding and offered guidelines for the release of criminal aliens who comprise the vast majority of the INS detainees awaiting deportation. In response. the INS eastern regions regional director released a draft plan in early February to free 1.550 criminal aliens under a point system that would give priority to those with the least serious convictions. Among those eligible for release under the proposal were criminal aliens who had been convicted in U.S. courts for such crimes as drug trafficking. assault. burglary. counterfeiting and alien smuggling.
Keywords matched
immigration Immigration Naturalization deportation noncitizen