Speech #1100055675

It concerns me. Another example. Instead of ensuring that members of violent gangs. such as MS13. are deported. the bill will allow violent gang members to get amnesty as long as they renounce their gang membership on their application. That is the current law. Under the bill. being in a violent gang is not going to prevent you from qualifying for amnesty. The bill requires amnesty applicants to listto listyou are required to list that gang membership on your application. Then you get a blank that says "renunciation of gang affiliation.".So if you check that blank and say you renounce it. then you get to stay in. perhaps. So why dont we allow this: If an illegal alien has been a member of a violent international gang. such as Mara Salvatrucha 13. MS13. why dont we say that blocks him or her from being eligible for the amnesty in the bill? Loyalty to the United States should be the requirement. not loyalty to some outside gang that is violent. The night before last. I happened to turn on CSPAN and catch a National Press Club conference by a series of law enforcement officers involved in the Border Patrol. the former chairman of the Border Patrol. They were ferocious in their criticism of this bill. I was surprised how strongly they felt about it. Hugh Brien. himself an immigrant. was Chief of the Border Patrol from 1986 to 1989. He called the bill a sellout. a complete betrayal of the Nation. a slap in the face to millions of Americans who have come here legally like he had done. In 1986. he recalled: "Our masters. our mandarins promised it would work." Of course. the 1986 bill did not. He also said. based on his experience in many years with the Border Patrol: "Its a disaster." Kent Lundgren. the national chairman of the Association of Former Border Patrol Officers. said this: "There are no meaningful criminal or terrorist checks" in the legislation. He noted that the "screening will not happen." He added Congress is lying about it.