Speech #1100051637

I say that for the benefit of our colleagues here. Madam President. on the Grassley amendment. I think it is important to understand that people who come into the United States under visas have to go through extensive background checks before they are granted visas. andl again before they are admitted. We are talking about millions of visitors. about hundreds of thousands of scholars and researchers and workers. These are not criminals or terrorists. Anybody who is a terrorist or criminal is not eligible for a visa. I will just mention the various crimes that individuals have committed that have denied them the opportunity to come to the United States to get a visa: climes of moral turpitude. such as aggravated assault. assault with a deadly weapon. aggravated DWI. fraud. larceny. forgery. controlled substance offenses. such as the sale. possession. and distribution of drugs. and drug trafficking. theft offenses. including shoplifting. public nuisance: multiple criminal convictions. any alien convicted of two or more offenses regardless of whether the offense arose from a scheme of misconduct. crimes of violence. counterfeiting:. bribery. perjury. certain aliens involved in serious criminal activity who have asserted immunity from prosecution. foreign government officials who have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom. significant traffickers of persons. money laundering. murder. rape. sexual abuse of a minor. child pornography. as well as attempts or conspiracy to commit most of those offenses. Those. obviously. who are denied on securityrelated grounds include espionage or sabotage. engaging in terrorist activity. and that is broadly defined. likely to engage in terrorist activity. broadly defined. association with terrorist activity. representative of a terrorist organization. spouse or child of an individual who is inadmissible as a terrorist:. activity that is deemed to have adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. membership in a totalitarian party. All of those ban individuals from coming into the United States. So if a visitor here has his visa revoked. he should be entitled to review. This doesnt create a burden on our courts but simply preserves basic due process. Courts review these cases every day. and we have heard no evidence of any undue burden on the courts. These cases can be handled expeditiously. Immigration judges ordered 220.000 people deported last year. Only 9 percent of these decisions were appealed. We have no abuse in the system at the current time. So providing review to a few more people whose visas are revoked wont flood the courts. Again. we are talking about the mistakes that can be made with the Department of Homeland Security. as a Member of the Senate. I was put on the nofly list by the Department of Homeland Security and denied the opportunity to even fly out of the Nations Capital to go back to my home city of Boston.