They do expect us to do our best. and we owe them that much. But in this case. doing our best means not repeating a mistake. Quite simply. the Department of Homeland Security is. under the current bill. prohibited from using internally all information from Z visa applications. as well as sharing information with the relevant law enforcement agencies. That is right. You can actually apply for a Z visa if you are 1 of the 12 million or so people here in the country already in violation of our immigration laws. whether it is entering without a visa or once having entered with a visa. overstaying that visa. and if you are seeking the benefits of this underlying bill which are mainly represented in the form of a Z visa. the information contained in that application by those 12 million individuals is effectively shielded from law enforcement authorities. For example. if an applicant comes forward and is denied a Z visa. this legislation currently pending prohibits the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service from using that information in order to apprehend that person who is not legally present in the country. What we learned about the 1986 amnesty was that the New York Times said It created the largest immigration fraud in the history of the United States. That same view is shared by the general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton with regard to statutory restrictions on sharing and using information. That general counsel. Paul Virtue. noted that this prohibition greatly contributed to this fraud. At this point. I ask unanimous consent that the New York Times article be printed in the Recored and I refer my colleagues to the testimony of Paul Virtue before the House Immigration and Claims Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee at judiciary house.gov/judiciary/10652.
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visa Naturalization immigration Immigration