Speech #1090136223

Let me give one example which will surprise most Members of the Senate. It illustrates the need for this amendment. Under current immigration law. a legal permanent resident convicted of an "aggravated felony" is subject to mandatory detention and deportation. The definition of aggravated felony in the Immigration and Nationality Act is very broad. It includes nonviolent crimes such as shoplifting. Section 203 of this bill would expand the definition of aggravated felony even further. It would now be an aggravated felony to aid or abet the commission of many nonviolent crimes. Under this provision. a teenager who is a lawful permanent resident and has lived in this country most of her life. could be subject to mandatory detention and deportation if she drives a friend home from the mall after the friend shoplifts a DVD. Lets take another example. The bill greatly expands the definition of document fraud to include potentially innocent activities such as omitting immaterial information from an immigration application. The bill would make such an omission a ground for deportation for the first time. so we are creating a new avenue for deporting people who are currently in the United States legally. For example. a lawful permanent resident who inadvertently fails to include information about her parents birthplace and address on her citizenship application could be convicted of document fraud and deported. My amendment would follow very closely what Senator KYL and Senator CORNYN accomplished last week. The Senate approved a KylCornyn amendment that under very strict circumstances will allow a humanitarian waiver for undocumented immigrants who apply for legal status under this bill. We are following to the word the KylCornyn amendment for the cases of legal immigrants who might be deportable as a result of changes in the law made by this bill. In my Chicago office. 80 percent of the casework relates to immigration. I can tell you we encounter case after case that would break your heart. In so many cases. people who have lived and worked in the United States for a long period of time and have immediate family members who are Americans are falling between the cracks of the law. Most often. when we present these cases to Homeland Security they say that they are powerless to do anything because our immigration laws allow so little flexibility. Every Member of the Senate has heard the pleas of a constituent or a friend or someone who has faced this kind of a dilemma. In most cases. we have no ability to help them. My amendment would follow the KylCornyn amendment and create a very limited waiver that would apply only in the most compelling caseswhere deportation of an immediate family member would cause extreme hardship to an American citizen or legal permanent resident. The waiver would not be automatic. The burden would fall on the immigrant to prove that extreme hardship would occur if he or she were deported. In every case. the Government has complete discretion to deny the waiver. To quote my amendment. the decision to grant a waiver would be in the "sole and unreviewable discretion" of the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Securitythe identical language used in the KylCornyn amendment. This same strict standard was enacted last week by the Senate in the KylCornyn amendment by a vote of 99 to 0. The KylCornyn waiver would apply in cases where undocumented immigrants are seeking legal status. The waiver in my amendment would apply in cases where an immigrant who was previously in legal status is subject to deportation only because of a change in the law made by this bill. Shouldnt we give the same chance to a legal immigrant facing deportation that we give to an undocumented immigrant seeking legal status? Deportation is very serious. For an immigrant. it means permanent exile from family and home. And in some situations. it may even be a matter of life and death. I think it is appropriate that we build on the good work of Senators KYL and CORNYN. Their standard is tough. but it is fair. and it certainly is not an easy standard to meet. It is also important to note that the discretionary waiver in my amendment is limited only to new penalties that are a consequence of this bill. In other words. it only applies to deportations that are a direct result of the changes in law made by this bill. I should also point out that in no circumstances would this waiver apply to cases involving suspected terrorists. The text of the amendment makes that explicit. We already give the Government broad discretion to apprehend. detain. and deport undocumented immigrants. My amendment would give the Government limited discretionvery limited discretionto show mercy in only the most compelling cases. The supporters of this amendment include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Catholic Charities USA. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. American Jewish Committee. League of United Latin American Citizens.