Speech #1090100185

Chairman. obviously. I would like to thank the Rules Committee publicly for allowing my amendment because I know there were probably 130 amendments. and I know they had a tough job deciding which ones to allow to go forward. In short. my amendment requires our government to ensure that the applicant is not a known criminal or terrorist before granting them immigration benefits. Pretty simple. But as the current law now stands. background checks of alien applicants are required. but the law does not specifically require these security checks to be completed before these immigration benefits are actually handed out. This means that many unworthy people have been able to receive these crucial benefits which then enables them to move freely throughout our country before their background checks are completely finished. By the time we finally discover something questionable in their background. of course it is too late to track them down. We cannot find them. My amendment helps to close this loophole. My amendment will prohibit the Department of Homeland Security. the Attorney General. and all courts from granting any kind of legal immigration status or benefits to an alien until. at a minimum. the aliens name is first completely checked against a database of criminal records and terrorist watch lists using the Treasury Enforcement Communication System database. As it now stands. all three have been giving status to aliens before they get their final results back from security checks. The result is we are giving green cards. citizenship. work permits. and temporary status to terrorists. criminals. and other unsavory types under this arrangement. not always but sometimes. For example. a new study by Janice Kephart. who was on the staff of the 9/ 11 Commission. looked at the immigration histories of 94 terrorists. including six of the 9/11 hijackers who had operated on U.S. soil between the 1990s and 2004. The results of this study are quite frightening. Twothirds. that is 59. of the foreignborn terrorists studied committed immigration benefits fraud prior to or in conjunction with taking part in terrorist activity. My amendment should go a long way towards preventing this irresponsible and dangerous loophole. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and the underlying bill.