Speech #1100053847

I have offered a separate amendment that would categorically bar fugitive aliens from receiving amnesty. I believe this is an issue of fundamental fairness and the integrity of the rule of law. In exchange for the largest legalization program in our Nations history. we should be able to say without any doubt that for any person who applies for and is denied a Z visa on any grounds. we will authorize Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take that application. arrest that individual. and to deport them as not qualifying under the laws of the land. But the bill the Senate is considering would turn a blind eye to those who would apply for this amnesty and are denied. This bill would allow them to slide back into the shadowsthe very problem we are trying to solve by this bill. Ask a random citizen on the street today to answer this simple question: Someone who has violated our immigration laws comes forward to apply for legal status under this bill. Because the applicant does not satisfy one of the criteria for being awarded legal status. the applicant is denied a Z visa. What happens to that individual under the present bill if my amendment is not adopted? I dont think we could find 1 out of 100 who would say something other than: Well. they should go home. And I suspect the majority would say they should be arrested on the spot and be deported. Yet the socalled confidentiality provisions in this bill will prevent law enforcement officials from using information on the application to locate and remove a significant population of those who cannot qualify for a Z visa because they are simply disqualified by law. This Is. in essence. providing an opportunity to significant categories of indlividuals whose applications are considered and rejected to slide back into the shadows and to defy our laws. This is the very problem we have been told this legislation was designed to fix. Yet it is designed in reality for failure unless this amendment is accepted. The whole point of this exercise. we continue to be told. is to enhance U.S. security by bringing people out of the shadows and into the open. to allow people who want to cooperate with the law to do so. while allowing our law enforcement officials to focus their efforts on drug traffickers. on criminals. and others who may come here to do us harm. But this bill would draw those who have entered our country in violation of our immigration laws or who have overstayed in violation of those laws to do so and to slide back into the shadows without allowing the law to be enforced. I would like to remind my colleagues of our Nations recent history with a massive legalization program and the consequences of prohibitions of Federal agencies on information sharing. As I have stated. reasonable observers have concluded that the 1986 amnesty was rife with fraud. There was an article written in the New York Times. I believe it was 1989. and it called this one of the most massive frauds in American history. We know. for example. from the 9/11 Commission staff statements that Mohammed and Abouhalima. conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. were granted green cards. or legal permanent resident status. under the special agricultural worker program. which was an amnesty program created by the 1986 bill. Under this special agricultural worker program. a key component of that 1986 amnesty bill. applicants had to provide evidence that they had worked on perishable crops for at least 90 days between May 1. 1985. and May 1. 1986. Their residence did not have to be continuous or unlawful.