INS Press Release on Enforcement Activity
The following was prepared for publication to describe INS' commitment to enforcing immigration law and some harsh consequences of legislative provisions passed in 1996.
Dated 4/18/2000
Keeping Our Communities Safe Is INS’ Top Priority
Restoring credibility to our nation’s immigration laws is vitally important. Critical to this effort is the detention and removal of dangerous criminal aliens (non-citizens convicted of crimes) from our communities and our country, and the ability of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to do so was enhanced by the reforms enacted by Congress in 1996.
Under the 1996 law, INS has detained and removed thousands of serious criminals. In FY 1999, we removed 62,359 criminal aliens, more than double the number removed in 1993. The number of criminal aliens in detention has also risen. In fact, it has quadrupled from 3,300 in 1994 to more than 16,000 this year—proof that INS has and will continue to detain people who pose a threat to public safety. We are proud of these accomplishments which underscore how seriously we take our responsibility.
However, in some respects, the new law went too far. We are seeing an increasing number of legal permanent residents convicted of non-violent offenses, some of which occurred decades ago, that under the 1996 reforms must be detained and removed from the country.
Imagine your neighbor is a legal permanent resident who came to this country when she was four years old. At age 18, she was convicted for a minor, non-violent offense for which she paid a small fine and served no time in prison. She is now 40 years old, owns her own business, is married to a U.S. citizen, is the mother of three U.S. citizen children, and is active in her church. She travels out of the country and on her way back, at the airport, she answers a questionnaire truthfully by admitting that she has been convicted of a crime. She is detained, put into immigration proceedings, and now faces deportation to a country to which she has no ties, and whose language she does not speak.
As a result of the 1996 law, your neighbor cannot be released while her case is being heard even though she does not pose a threat to society, and she is likely to appear at her immigration hearing. And at her immigration hearing, the judge is not permitted, under the 1996 law, to consider her strong ties to this country, her family, her business, nor the contributions she has made to her community. The judge must order her deported. Her children will lose their mother, a family is irreparably divided.
This woman represents many who have been caught up in the wide net cast by the 1996 law. These people have paid their debt to society. They do not pose a danger to their communities, and many have made substantial contributions to our country.
Releasing these individuals pending their hearings is the right thing to do and allowing the government to consider relief from deportation for them, on a case by case basis, would avoid unjust, harsh results. It would also permit INS to use limited detention space to house not only dangerous, mandatory criminal aliens, but also to hold aliens such as gang members and alien smugglers whom INS believes are a real threat to public safety.
We recognize INS can and must do better. We all share a similar goal—a more efficient, effective immigration system. With that in mind, the INS is working with the Administration and Congress to forward a proposal to fundamentally restructure INS. The proposal separates INS’ service and enforcement responsibilities into distinct chains of command. This would streamline our operations, better define roles, improve communication, and increase accountability within one agency.
INS is strongly committed to enforcing the law, and we will continue to do so. And we believe justice is served when we remove the criminal threat from our communities and our country. Justice, however, is more than words in a statute or a deportation order. It is doing what is right and fair for each and every person.
– INS –