Thread: Immigration Measure Seeks More Deportations

Immigration Measure Seeks More Deportations
By Jeff Golimowski
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
June 15, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Homeland Security's phone bill is about to go up, if an illegal immigration-related measure becomes law. But activists on both sides of the debate say the move may achieve little more than burning up the phone lines.

A provision passed by the House of Representatives Friday requires the DHS to contact and get information from every federal, state, and local prison in the United States at least once a month about the facilities' illegal immigrant population.

The bill also requires DHS staffers to "make every reasonable effort to remove such aliens judged deportable upon their release."

The bill could face a presidential veto (See Related Story).

"We are serious about this prison program," Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) said in a speech on the House floor this week. "We think of all the priorities in terms of deportation, this is at the top of the list."

An Appropriations Committee report cites Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) estimates of more than 600,000 foreign nationals serving time in U.S. prisons. Yet, according to ICE, only 79,000 of those foreigners were identified and deported in 2005. Price calls that unacceptable.

"There is simply no excuse for failing to identify every deportable alien and deporting them immediately upon their release from prison," he said in another floor speech. "These are undocumented individuals who have served time in jail for committing crimes, and we are releasing them back into the population."

Critics are effectively yawning at the provision, questioning its effectiveness in the grand scheme of the immigration debate.

"We wholeheartedly stand behind the law in deporting people who have already broken the law," said Eric Guitterez, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), a Latino civil rights group.

Guitterez said the bill's provision is likely a good idea, but he said he doesn't think it will make much of a difference.

"Certain groups are going to look at it as increasing or getting tough on enforcement ... I don't think it's going to have a significant effect on the broken immigration system we have now," said Guitterez.

Americans for Immigration Control Editor John Vinson echoed Guitterez's thoughts. His group - which advocates making life as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants in the U.S. to force them to leave - thinks polling every prison in the United States probably won't hurt, but he's not sure if it will help.

"We want to do everything we can to get rid of people who don't belong here," Vinson said. "I don't know it would necessarily have a great effect, but it sounds like a useful step in that direction."

Former ICE special agent and immigration expert Mike Cutler, now a fellow with the Center for Immigration Research, said the provision is a great idea in principle. Yet he warned that Congress would have to put its money where its mouth is.

"You'd need to hire many more people to do this, they'd have to physically go to the jails and set up liaisons," said Cutler. "But in the end, I think it's cost-effective."

If the law passes, DHS staffers will have to prepare a report to Congress by Jan. 1, 2008, on how the agency will get the information and ramp up deportations. The bill does include some additional funding for ICE to set up the information-gathering program.

Cybercast News Service Correspondent Katherine Poythress contributed to this report.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?P ... 0615b.html

Seriously doubt that this president is going to let this bill get through. He wants as many illegals as he can left in the country.

Thats for sure and he doesn't care what kind of criminal record they have either!

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