Speech #1090131548

I dont think any Americans really believe that it is just OK to ignore a lawful court order. How many Americans. for example. after receiving a subpoena to show up in court or maybe a jury summons. simply ignore it and skip the date? Today in the United States. there are 544.000544.000--aliens who have been ordered deported but then have gone underground. That is more than a half million people who simply chose to ignore a lawful court order. Under current law. it is a felony offense punishable by up to 4 years in jail to not comply with a deportation order. So lets be clear. We are not talking about civil violations. We are talking about criminals. people who not only have overstayed their legal authorization or who have come in illegally and been caught. we are talking about people who have had their day in court and simply ignored the judgment of the court and gone underground. I believe this amendment is indicative of whether we will continue to tolerate and reward those who violate our immigration laws. The current bill increases penalties and would impose a mandatory minimum criminal sentence of 6 months on any alien who fails to leave the country after being ordered deported. The current bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to list absconders in the NCIC. the national database. criminal database. so that State and local police officers can arrest them when they are encountered during regular traffic stops. These are both steps in the right direction. I believe. But then. oddly in the same bill. the same proposal on the floor. it would allow those same individuals to apply for legalization and would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from apprehending or detaining these same aliens. In other words. this bill simultaneously increases criminal penalties for failing to follow a court order but then rewards the same criminal act with an easier path to a green card. I do not think there is a better example of Congress sending mixed signals on immigration reform. If we are going to avoid the mistakes of 1986 and avoid the massive buildup of people who are in our country out of status. we have to create a system that encourages selfcompliance by illegal aliens. Each year. there are 300.000 deportation hearings. What is the point of conducting those hearings if those who are ultimately ordered deported after they have had their day in court simply go underground and ignore a lawful court order? If the absconder rate is about 85 percent today. what will it be in the future if we reward those who fail to comply with amnesty? The aliens who comply and who leave the country would not be eligible for amnesty. So the message. at least so far as the bill on the floor is concerned. is you are better off violating the law. hunkering down. melting into the landscape. and then you are going to get amnesty. But if you actually comply with a lawful court order and leave. then you are not entitled to the benefits under the billexactly the opposite of the message we ought to be sending. We need to decide whether we are more interested in granting amnesty than we are in reforming the immigration laws and restoring confidence in the immigration system. Without this amendment. the current bill would grant amnesty to aliens who committed felony offenses. thereby encouraging further violations of immigration and undermining the integrity of our immigration court system. Some may argue that the majority of aliens deported never receive notice that they are in proceedings. That is simply not true. Deportation proceedings are initiated when written notice is provided to the alien. which is almost always done when that individual is apprehended. The notice. informally called a notice to appear. advises the recipient of three things: No. 1. the conduct alleged to be in violation of the law. No. 2. the aliens obligation to provide the Government with a written record of an address. and No. 3. the consequences of failure to provide or update the address on record with the Government. The Government is also required by statute to provide notice to the alien of any change or postponement of the proceedings. Just as in any other civil or criminal proceeding. the alien has an obligation to provide a current address. If that were not the case. how would the immigration courts administer the 300.000plus cases they hear each year? So what happens if the alien fails to appear at the hearing? The court may order the alien removed in absentia only if the Government establishes by clear. unequivocal. and convincing evidence that the written notice was provided to the alien and that the alien is. in fact. deportable. The court may rescind the order if. within 6 months of the order. the alien establishes that he did not receive notice of the hearing or if exceptional circumstances prevented the alien from appearing. This amendment we are offeringwill offer when permittedincludes the same waiver standard. so any alien who establishes that he or she did not receive notice as required or was unable to appear at a hearing because of a medical emergency or other exceptional circumstance remains eligible to apply. The text of the amendment is unambiguous. It would not apply to any alien who entered without inspection. overstayed a visa. or violated their visa status unless the alien has had his or her day in court and been ordered deported. To avoid any confusion. this amendment uses the exact language as in the current Immigration and Nationality Act. In conclusion. let me say that national security demands that we know who is living within our borders. especially since 9/11. We must reform our immigration laws in order to bring millions of those who are living outside of the law out of the shadows and in compliance with that law. But success of immigration reform cannot be measured solely on how many aliens obtain legal status. The 1986 amnesty bill brought millions of illegal aliens out of shadows. Yet Congress never lived up to its commitment to enforce the law at the border and at the workslte. Today. 20 years since the 1986 amnesty. the continued failure to enforce the law has resulted in a new class of illegal aliens that is estimated to be approximately 12 million. That is four times larger than 20 years ago. I share the goal of comprehensive reform and of bringing those 12 million illegal aliens out of the shadows and into compliance with the law. In fact. I believe we ought to give them a second chance to reenter the country in a legal status. But I also believe that we should not repeat the failures of 1986 and restore credibility and law and order to the immigration system. The current bill. without any amendment. rewards criminal behavior and will undermine the Governments ability to enforce the immigration laws. My amendment. which only excludes criminals from obtaining legal status. will reveal whether we are really serious about reforming our immigration laws or if we are strictly interested in granting legal status to as many illegal aliens as possible. irrespective of whether they are criminals or whether rewarding them would repeat the failures of 1986. Mr. President.