[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 16, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E440-E441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         INS HOME-FREE STRATEGY

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                            HON. RON PACKARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 16, 1999

  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I am disturbed by recent reports in the 
Washington Post and Los Angeles Times detailing a new strategy by the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service that essentially ends 
enforcement of our immigration laws at job sites across the country. 
According to both these reports, the INS is ceasing to conduct raids on 
places of employment suspected of hiring illegal aliens.
  The new INS strategy demonstrates a fundamental shift in the way we 
enforce our immigration laws. By ending workplace raids, the strategy 
strips away any deterrent to hiring illegal immigrants and virtually 
ensures we will never find and deport those that successfully make it 
across the border illegally. Mr. Speaker, perhaps we should title the 
new INS plan the ``Home Free Strategy.'' As one INS field manager 
recently put it, illegal aliens know that ``if you get through the 
border, you're home free. Everybody recognizes that, and the aliens 
know that by now.''
  Officials at the INS claim that they are re-directing efforts--due to 
limited funding--toward apprehending criminal aliens, alien-smuggling 
rings and document fraud. While I support a new, focused effort to 
address these problems, I do not endorse the false and misguided 
strategy of abandoning one effort for another.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleagues that the Border 
Patrol has nearly doubled in size over the last five years and that

[[Page E441]]

Congress appropriated a record $4 billion for the INS last year alone. 
While virtually every other federal agency is enduring smaller and 
smaller budgets, the INS is one of the few that has consistently 
received increases in funding. Congress is working hard to ensure that 
the INS has the resources to enforce our immigration laws and protect 
our border. Yet instead of working to capture and deport illegal aliens 
wherever they are, the INS comes up with excuse after excuse as to why 
they cannot do their job. That is absolutely unacceptable.
  Mr. Speaker, I adamantly oppose the new ``Home-Free Strategy'' 
employed by the INS and I urge them to reverse course.

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