Speech #1090120433

That is only true if most of the people who are supposed to receive benefits under the bill have committed a felony or three misdemeanors or have violated a court order to leave the country when they have been ordered to do so. or have not complied with a prior order of the DHS to depart if they are not eligible to participate in the program. These are not the people we should be seeking to give the benefits of the program to. These are precisely the people who have demonstrated either they are criminals or that when you have given them the chance to comply with an immigration order. they have refused to do so. I do not think the Senator intended to say these are exactly the people we want to benefit under this program. There are two large classes of people who would be potentially denied the benefits of the program by our amendment. The first is. instead of referring to crimes of moral turpitude or violation of a crime relating to a controlled substancewhich are the two specific categories in the billwe say any felony or three misdemeanors. And examples of crimes. as I said before. that are not covered by the controlled substance or moral turpitude sections are: burglary. loan sharking. involuntary manslaughter assault and battery. possession of an unregistered sawedoff shotgun. riot kidnaping abandonment of a minor child. alien [52. Pt. 4 4787 smuggling: reentry after deportation. as I said: draft evasion. desertion from the Armed Forces. and others. These are crimes that would not be picked up in the pending bill. So while it is true some crimes are covered and. therefore. some criminals would not get the benefits called for in this pending legislation. it is also true many others who have committed these other kinds of crimes would not in any way be restricted from participating in the benefits of the law. The second group is those who have committed immigration violations. not just people who are in some status violation. Let me make that crystal clear. It is not simply because you overstayed your visa. There are only two categories here. You have not complied with a prior Department order and. therefore. are not eligible to participate in the program. In the hearing. by the way. of our subcommittee. we showed that between 80 and 85 percent of those released on bail failed to appear and comply with removal orders. Clearly. this has to demonstrate a disrespect for orders from immigration courts and should not be allowed to continue. These are exactly the kind of people you do not want to be participating in the program because they have already demonstrated a willingness to violate immigration law after being ordered to do so. Secondly. those who have not only failed to depart after being orderedthey have entered illegally. but that is not what we are talking about here. Entering illegally does not count under this amendment to deny them benefits.