Mr. President. I have sought recognition to follow the comments made by the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma concerning a group of Senators who met yesterday with a variety of proposals on immigration reform. One of those proposals was mine. S. 2720. This bill seeks to deal with a very serious public safety problem where illegal aliens who have been convicted of crimes of violence are permitted to walk free on the streets of America where their native country will not accept them for deportation. This is the factual situation where the matter arises. A person is charged. for example. with aggravated robbery. serves 10 years in jail. is released from jail on the service of a maximum sentence. then is turned over to authorities from the immigration service for deportation. Then the efforts to deport the individual are not successful because his native country will not take him or her back. Under court rulings. the maximum that person can be held in detention is 180 days. That means after the service of the sentence. after being detained for 180 days. that person is then back on the streets of America where the statistics show a very high degree of recidivism or repeat offenses. The legislation I am introducing would put pressure on native countries to take back for deportation their citizens under circumstances where they now refuse to do so by denying to those countries visas for their people who want to come to visit the United States. There are currently some discretionary provisions on the books which. simply stated. have not worked. This would mandate that procedure.
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illegal aliens visas deportation immigration