Speech #1090100376

It is widely reported that many Mexican organized crime syndicates have shifted much of their activity from drug smuggling to human smuggling and human trafficking. specifically because the penalties for human smuggling and human trafficking and for the related offense to which this amendment is directed. document fraud. are much lower. yet they can achieve the same profit. The penalties for committing these offenses. for creating these false documents. must be significant. and they must be high enough to deter this type of activity. Second. the amendment imposes an additional minimummandatory sentence of 5 years on any illegal alien convicted of either a crime of violence here in the United States or drug trafficking. Under current law. there is no additional penalty for someone who enters the United States illegally and then commits either a crime of violence or a drug trafficking offense. They simply come under the same penalty as we have in current law.