Speech #1090100451

First. I would like to thank the Rules Committee for approving my amendment. And let me say that H.R. 4437 is a good start to addressing immigration reform. However. I feel the bill needs to do more to protect and enforce immigration laws throughout our Nations interior. National security does not stop at our Nations borders. Interior security is national security. My amendment is in direct response to the lack of Federal immigration enforcement in cities and towns across the Nation. It gives willing local law enforcement and State law enforcement the ability to detain Illegal aliens in the course of their regular duties. The simple truth is. our State and local law enforcement officers confront illegal aliens more often than Federal agents. My amendment also requires Federal authorities to respond to and detain all illegal aliens reported to the Department of Homeland Security by State and local law enforcement. Federal authorities will now have a choice between either taking immediate custody of illegal or criminal aliens or paying for their continued local detention. With my amendment. the current policy of catch and release will give way to deter and remove. The key word here is "willing." The amendment does not force or mandate State or local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. It simply gives them the option of doing so in the course of their regular duties. It is common sense that willing law enforcement agencies should have the inherent authority and the ability to protect citizens and their community when they come across criminal violations involving illegal aliens. My amendment also expands expedited removal nationwide for all illegal aliens who cannot prove to the immigration officer they have been in the United States for more than 1 year. Newly arrived illegal aliens coming up from our southern border through Arizona should not get the benefit of a court date simply because they successfully circumvented U.S. law and made it to Phoenix. Arizona. which is 180 miles away. This bill only applies expedited removal up to 100 miles of the southern border. The Department of Homeland Security has the authority to invoke expedited removal nationwide up to 2 years. but they have chosen not to do so. Expedited removal must apply nationwide. Lastly. my amendment requires that. by 2008. all noncitizens who enter or exit the country be processed through an automated entryexit control system Congress mandated in 1996. However. to be effective and secure. the program must require every noncitizens entry and exit to be recorded. not just a fraction of nonimmigrants entering the U.S. The statistics on this issue are startling. According to the Government Accountability Office. the current risk of visa overstay being identified and removed is less than 2 percent. And we know that visa overstayers account for 40 percent of the illegal alien population. I feel this amendment is a commonsense approach to deter illegal immigration and will strengthen H.R. 4437. and I encourage its passage.