[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15075-15076]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  In addition to the new proposals the Administration is considering, 
there is significant unfinished business in the immigration area. The 
new Commissioner will inherit a number of questionable immigration 
policies that Congress enacted five years ago in the Illegal 
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. There are also a 
number of unresolved issues from the last Congress that we must address 
in this one.
  Mr. Ziglar promised at his confirmation hearing to be an advocate for 
the many fine men and women who work for the INS, and I was glad to 
hear him say that. I know that in my State there are many hardworking 
men and women who work for the Law Enforcement Support Center, the 
Vermont Service Center and Sub-Office, the Debt Management Center, the 
Eastern Regional Office, and the Swanton Border Patrol Sector. These 
are employees Mr. Ziglar can rely on in his attempt to improve the 
agency.
  One of the bigger issues facing the next Commissioner will be 
restructuring the INS. I strongly support improving the agency and 
giving it the resources it needs. The tasks we ask the INS to do range 
from processing citizenship applications to protecting our borders, and 
I agree that there are some internal tensions in the INS' mission that 
might be resolved. I also believe, however, that we must ensure that 
the INS does not lose its strengths, which I think are well represented 
by the great efficiency of the INS offices in Vermont. I intend to play 
an active role in the development and consideration of any INS 
reorganization plan.

[[Page 15076]]

  I am also heartened that Mr. Ziglar questioned our nation's use of 
expedited removal and detention at his confirmation hearing. Later this 
week I will join with Senator Brownback and others to introduce the 
Refugee Protection Act, which would sharply limit the use of expedited 
removal and reduce the use of detention against asylum seekers. I think 
I can speak for Senator Brownback in saying we look forward to working 
with Mr. Ziglar to move this legislation.
  The use of expedited removal, the process under which aliens arriving 
in the United States can be returned immediately to their native lands 
at the say-so of a low-level INS officer, calls the United States' 
commitment to refugees into serious question. Since Congress adopted 
expedited removal in 1996, we have had a system where we are removing 
people who arrive here either without proper documentation or with 
facially valid documentation that an INS officer simply suspects is 
invalid. This policy ignores the fact that people fleeing despotic 
regimes are quite often unable to obtain travel documents before 
leaving--they must move quickly and cannot depend upon the government 
that is persecuting them to provide them with the proper paperwork for 
departure. In the limited time that expedited removal has been in 
operation, we already have received reliable reports that valid asylum 
seekers have been denied admission to our country without the 
opportunity to convince an immigration judge that they faced 
persecution in their native lands. To provide just one example, as 
Archbishop Theodore McCarrick described in an op-ed in the July 22 
Washington Post, a Kosovar Albanian was summarily removed from the U.S. 
after the civil war in Kosovo had already made the front pages of 
America's newspapers. I believe we must address this issue in this 
Congress.
  In addition to questioning expedited removal and detention, I hope 
that Mr. Ziglar will work with us to address some of the other serious 
due process concerns created by passage of the Antiterrorism and 
Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and 
Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996. Through those laws, Congress 
expanded the pool of people who could be deported, denied those people 
the chance for due process before deportation, and made these changes 
retroactive, so that legal permanent residents who had committed 
offenses so minor that they did not even serve jail time suddenly faced 
removal from the United States. The Supreme Court has recently limited 
some of the retroactive effects of those laws, in INS v. St. Cyr, but 
we must do more to bring these laws into line with our historic 
commitment to immigration. Many of us have attempted throughout the 
last five years to undo the legislation we passed in 1996--it remains a 
high priority and I hope we can find areas of agreement with Mr. Ziglar 
and the Administration.
  Mr. Ziglar did not present himself at his confirmation hearing as an 
expert on immigration and immigration law--he said frankly that he has 
much to learn. He did offer his expertise in management and promised to 
work hard to solve some of the problems the INS has faced over recent 
years. We in Congress want to be partners in this effort, and I hope 
that the excellent working relationship we have had with Mr. Ziglar 
over the years will continue in his new capacity.
  James Ziglar is the President's choice to be the Commissioner of the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service, and I am happy to vote for his 
nomination. He has a distinguished background as a lawyer, investment 
banker, and government official. Furthermore, he was a distinguished 
Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, serving the needs of every Senator in a 
time of great partisanship. He worked behind the scenes to ensure that 
the business of the Senate went smoothly even in stressful times such 
as the impeachment trial of President Clinton. We here all owe him a 
debt of gratitude for his hard and effective work.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I note that Jim Ziglar is on the floor. I 
want to be the first among all of our colleagues to congratulate him 
publicly.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)

                          ____________________