[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 108 (Monday, July 21, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H7201-H7202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE CLEAR ACT OF 2003

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share another tragic 
story with my colleagues of another senseless criminal act that could 
have and should have never happened but was allowed to take place 
because of our broken immigration system.
  By the accounts of those who knew him best, 27-year-old Tony 
Zeppetella was a model son, a good brother, a loving husband and 
father, and a valued law enforcement officer with the Oceanside, 
California, Police Department. Sadly, the world lost Officer Zeppetella 
just last month when he was gunned down on a routine traffic stop. 
According to witnesses, it was a brutal gangland-style murder. Officer 
Zeppetella was shot once as he was walking away from the suspect's car. 
The suspect then pistol-whipped Officer Zeppetella, grabbing his 
firearm in the process and shooting him again at point blank range.
   Madam Speaker, the individual accused and arrested for the murder is 
Adrian Camacho, an illegal and criminal alien who has a rap sheet that 
includes numerous gang- and drug-related charges and convictions and 
hard prison time. While it appears Adrian Camacho has been deported a 
number of times to his home country of Mexico, he was allowed to 
continue to return to his personal criminal playground, the United 
States, time after time after time.
  America's committed law enforcement officers who protect us every 
day, officers like Tony Zeppetella, deserve better than an immigration 
system that creates a revolving door for 80,000 criminal aliens living 
in the United States, a system that asks them to spend their time 
arresting, then rearresting the same individuals. This makes their job 
far more difficult and dangerous than it already is.
  Earlier this month, along with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd), 
the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart), and the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Deal), I introduced The CLEAR Act. It is a bill that would 
address our Nation's criminal alien crisis and make a real difference 
for our men and women wearing the badge.
   More specifically, The CLEAR Act would require the Federal 
Government to take custody of criminal and illegal aliens apprehended 
by local and State law enforcement agencies or else pay the locality to 
detain them. It would also create a new system for the Bureau of 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or now known as BICE, to take 
custody of criminal and illegal aliens from localities and take them to 
a BICE facility for processing and deportation.
  If a Federal agency is truly uncooperative in this process, The CLEAR 
Act allows the local or State law enforcement department to hold that 
agency accountable by establishing an unprecedented administrative 
review process and fine schedule.

                              {time}  2000

  Lastly, the CLEAR Act would create a very real financial disincentive 
for criminal and illegal aliens, like Adrian Camacho, from illegally 
returning to the United States over and over again.
   It is also a bill that carries the endorsement and support of our 
Nation's well-respected law enforcement groups, groups such as the 
National Sheriffs' Association, the Law Enforcement Alliance of 
America, the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, and the 
Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement. These are groups that represent 
America's rank-and-file officers and are groups that understand that an 
immigration system that allows 400,000 illegal immigrants with 
deportation orders to walk our streets and a system that allows 80,000 
criminal aliens to continually commit violent and horrific crimes 
within our borders is an immigration system that puts our men and women 
wearing the badge in additional undue and unnecessary danger.
   Madam Speaker, Officer Tony Zeppetella is a hero to the people whose 
lives he touched, his family, his wife and infant child, and friends 
and fellow officers that he left behind, but he is also a hero to all 
of us who are Americans because of his service to make our Nation a 
safer place.
   Madam Speaker, it is time our Federal Government and this Congress 
got serious about our criminal alien crisis. The dangerously 
inefficient immigration system we have today has created far too many 
stories like that of Officer Zeppetella.
   I urge my colleagues to do the right thing. Take a thoughtful, long 
look at our problem. Support our local and State law enforcement 
officers. Support the CLEAR Act, and let us

[[Page H7202]]

straighten up this immigration system in America.

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