[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 8 (Monday, February 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S516-S517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MOYNIHAN:
  S. 1617. A bill for the relief of Jesus M. Collado-Munoz; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.


                       private relief legislation

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. On September 28, 1996, the Senate passed the Omnibus 
Consolidated Appropriations Act, a 749-page bill with 24 separate 
titles. Included in that unwieldy legislation was the Illegal 
Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a far-reaching 
measure designed to curtail illegal immigration and prevent criminals 
from entering our country. This legislation, hurried to passage in the 
final days of a legislative session, has proven to be overly punitive 
in a number of cases, including that of Jesus Collado.
  On April 7, Jesus Collado, a 43-year-old legal resident of the United 
States, returned to this country after vacationing in the Dominican 
Republic, his homeland. Upon arrival at John F. Kennedy airport in New 
York, Mr. Collado was detained by INS officers who kept him handcuffed 
and made him sit on the floor of a room in the airport for nearly 24 
hours. INS officials had determined Mr. Collado excludable because the 
Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act made the 
misdemeanor on his criminal record a deportable offense. Twenty-three 
years ago, when Mr. Collado was 19-years old, he was convicted of a 
class A misdemeanor, having sexual relations with a minor, his 15-year-
old girlfriend. I should note here that their relationship was a 
consensual one. Mr. Collado was sentenced to a year's probation, which 
he served. He has not been in trouble with the law since.
  Whatever I or my colleagues think about his teenage indiscretion, the 
fact remains that he is not a serious criminal who should be excluded 
from entering the United States. Yet, as I mentioned, on April 7 last, 
Mr. Collado was arrested upon arrival in New York and was held without 
bail for 201 days at the INS Detention Facility at the York County 
Prison in York, Pennsylvania.
  The Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act was meant to 
keep serious criminals out of the United States. It was not meant to 
exclude those who have resided here legally for a quarter century 
because of a misdemeanor committed as a teenager. Might I add that 
Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee seems 
to agree with me. In Anthony Lewis' December 22, 1997 column in the New 
York Times, Mr. Smith remarked that Jesus Collado's case ``obviously 
tugs at your heart. Clearly this is an instance where humanitarian 
considerations should be taken into account. I believe in redemption 
and I believe it should be granted generously.''
  Ultimately, the Immigration and Naturalization Service must be given 
discretion in the implementation of this Act. But Mr. Collado and his 
family need relief now. Today I am introducing private relief 
legislation for Mr. Collado to establish that his misdemeanor is not 
grounds for inadmissibility, deportation or denial of citizenship. 
Representative Nydia Velazquez, who has worked tirelessly on Mr. 
Collado's behalf, has introduced a similar measure in the House of 
Representatives. I urge the Senate to act on this matter swiftly so 
that the Collado family may get on with their lives.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and 
Anthony Lewis' column be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was order to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1617

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. WAIVER OF CONSIDERATION OF CRIMINAL OFFENSE FOR 
                   IMMIGRATION PURPOSES FOR JESUS M. COLLADO-
                   MUNOZ.

       Notwithstanding sections 212(a) and 237(a) of the 
     Immigration and Nationality Act, Jesus M. Collado-Munoz shall 
     not be considered, by reason of the criminal offense to which 
     he pleaded guilty on October 24, 1974, to be inadmissible to, 
     or deportable from, the United States. The offense shall not 
     be used to find that Jesus M. Collado-Munoz lacks good moral 
     character for any purpose under that Act, including 
     eligibility for naturalization.
                                                                    ____


                [From the New York Times, Dec. 22, 1997]

                           A Generous Country

                           (By Anthony Lewis)

       Washington.--The immigration law passed by Congress in 1996 
     has had harsh effects on some individuals: visitors barred at 
     our borders, aliens marked for deportation after living here 
     legally for many years. I discussed the issues with the 
     principal House sponsor of the law, Representative Lamar S. 
     Smith, Republican of Texas.
       ``America should continue to be the most generous country 
     in the world toward immigrants,'' Mr. Smith said, ``I thing 
     they have much to contribute to this country.''
       The 1996 act, he said, was designed to deal with people who 
     do not deserve to be here, such as those who enter illegally. 
     But it was not intended to deny anyone fair treatment.
       ``There is not excuse for anybody being treated unjustly,'' 
     he said ``Justice is one of the things that makes this 
     country great, and rightly attracts people here, along with 
     economic opportunity and freedom.''
       What about instances, I asked, where the Immigration and 
     Naturalization Service has admitted that its officers 
     mistreated individuals at the border? The Commissioner of 
     Immigration, Doris Messner, has said that about several cases 
     described in this column in recent months.
       ``It's not the fault of the law,'' Mr. Smith replied. 
     ``It's the fault of the I.N.S.
       ``When you have hundreds of millions of entries every year, 
     and you have human nature involved, there are inevitably 
     going to be some lapses. That doesn't excuse them, I hope it 
     won't be interpreted as rationalizing any kind of 
     insensitivity. It is simply a comment on what is a fact of 
     life.''
       One provision of the 1996 act, called ``expedited 
     removal,'' allows I.N.S. agents to keep out anyone they think 
     is trying to enter the country improperly, even if the person 
     has a U.S. visa, and bar him for five years. I asked whether 
     that, didn't encourage hasty, sometimes unfair decisions.
       Mr. Smith said he had been to two border checkpoints in the 
     last several months and found the border patrol agents 
     ``enthusiastic'' about the provision. ``I think on the whole 
     it's reducing the abuses,'' he said, ``the gaming of the 
     system.''
       The new law's process for dealing with applicants for 
     political asylum is also working well, he said. It requires 
     someone who claims to be fleeing persecution first to 
     persuade an asylum officer at the border that he or she has a 
     ``credible fear,'' then to have an asylum hearing before an 
     immigration judge.
       ``The asylum officers are getting some good training,'' Mr. 
     Smith said. ``Almost 90 percent of people asking for asylum 
     are being found to have a credible fear. When you have that 
     high a level of initial acceptance of their claims, clearly 
     the officers are giving people the benefit of the doubt.''
       Since it was human nature for the I.N.S. to make some 
     mistakes, I asked, why had the new statute in many areas 
     stripped away the right to judicial review of the agency's 
     decisions?
       ``Judicial review,'' he said, ``encouraged many of the 
     people who are in this country illegally'' by allowing them 
     to contest their deportation endlessly. He said there were 
     about five million, with the number growing by 300,000 a 
     year.
       The 1996 law also made legal immigrants deportable because 
     of minor crimes committed years ago, and removed their right 
     to

[[Page S517]]

     seek a waiver of deportation. A notable case is that of Jesus 
     Collado, a Brooklyn man who faces deportation because he 
     slept with a 15-year-old girlfriend 23 years ago and was put 
     on probation for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. 
     He has lived a blameless life since and has an American wife 
     and three children.
       ``In the vast majority of cases I think the crimes do 
     justify deportation,'' Mr. Smith commented. ``However, 
     perhaps around the far edges the I.N.S. should have some 
     discretion in these cases.
       ``First I'd like to be reassured that the Administration is 
     serious about deporting hardened criminals. It has a program 
     to deport those currently in prison when they finish their 
     sentences, but it is deporting less than 50 percent.''
       The Collado case, he said, ``obviously tugs at your heart. 
     Clearly this is an instance where humanitarian considerations 
     should be taken into account. I believe in redemption, and I 
     believe it should be granted generously.
       ``The question is how you do that without creating a giant 
     loophole through which thousands of others can escape 
     deportation.''
                                 ______