Speech #1090100259

Mr. Chairman. my amendment strikes section 407. Section 407 expands the controversial policy of expedited removal. which grants extraordinary power to lowlevel immigration officers to order deported without any judicial review and without any fair hearing people who arrive at ports of entry without proper documentation. This section would authorize such unreviewable deportation decisions. again without any real judicial review. for anyone picked up within 100 miles of any U.S. border. not just at ports of entry or near the Mexican border. My amendment would prevent this expansion of expedited removal and limit its use to the present locations. If the amendment passes. we would still. of course. deport illegal aliens. but people arrested within the U.S. would continue to have the right to some judicial review. some due process before being deported. They would have the right. as they do now. to challenge the decision of the Border Patrol agent. By imposing expedited removal proceedings on all aliens apprehended within 100 miles of any border. this bill would deny thousands of people all due process rights. The expedited removal process poses the gravest risks to refugees fleeing human rights abuses. Those fleeing torture. imprisonment or other forms of persecution are often forced to travel without valid documents because there is not enough time to obtain them or because it is too dangerous to apply for them. Those fleeing persecution or the Gestapo or the KGB or the Savak are least likely to have properly notarized and stamped documents. countersigned by the Gestapo. the KGB or the Savak. The expansion of the expedited removal process puts refugee women and children fleeing rape. honor killings. female mutilation. forced marriages and sexual slavery particularly at risk because these victims have the most difficulty sharing and explaining their painful stories to border agents who may not be experts in foreign cultures. Furthermore. when individuals are placed in expedited removal. they do not have access to relief from deportation under the Violence Against Women Act. the temporary protected status or as trafficking victims. My amendment seeks to prevent the inevitable consequences of deporting more asylum seekers. battered immigrants. trafficking victims and others who may be legally entitled to remain but who have no real opportunity for any appeal from the hasty judgment of the border agent. no due process. Even as currently applied. expedited removal has resulted in terrible mistakes. including its wrongful application to genuine refugees and even to U.S. citizens. The Senate heard the case of Sharon McKnight. an American citizen from New York of Jamaican descent who suffers a mental disability and was wrongly put into expedited removal and sent to Jamaica because an inspector mistakenly thought her passport was fake. Expanding this policy to include persons already within the United States poses grave constitutional problems. Immigration laws long made a distinction between those aliens seeking admission to the U.S. and those who are already within the U.S.. regardless of the legality of their entry. In Zadvydas v. Davis. the Supreme Court held "once an alien enters the country. the legal status changes. for the Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States. including aliens. whether their presence here is lawful. unlawful. temporary or permanent." Because there is no check or review of expedited removal decisions. there is no due process.