Cornyn: Congress Must Give Law Enforcement Tools To Enforce Immigration Laws

Press Release

Cornyn: Congress Must Give Law Enforcement Tools To Enforce Immigration Laws

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee's Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee, succeeded this evening in closing a critical loophole in the proposed immigration bill. Sen. Cornyn's amendment, which would ensure that there are no restrictions on law enforcement's access to information filed by an alien who is denied the proposed "Z" visa status, passed the Senate by a wide margin of 57 to 39. This measure will help prevent some of the rampant document fraud that resulted from the 1986 amnesty bill.

"This amendment will remove the blinders that prevent law enforcement from investigating and prosecuting wrongful conduct, including document fraud and criminal acts," U.S. Sen. Cornyn said on the Senate floor this evening. "If there's one thing we learned from the 1986 amnesty, it is that we must give the law enforcement community the tools they need to crack down on rampant document fraud. Even more importantly, this amendment will help begin to restore public confidence that we are not playing games with them, but that we're actually serious about restoring the rule of law when it comes to our broken immigration system."

Under the proposed immigration bill, DHS is effectively fettered from doing its job to enforce the laws—because it is prohibited from using all of the information submitted with "Z" applications and sharing information from "Z" applications with the relevant law enforcement agencies—especially to identify and remove absconders. With passage of the Cornyn measure this evening, the bill has been amended to make sure there are no restrictions on law enforcement access to information filed by an alien who is denied "Z" status

Background:

The "confidentiality" provisions of the 1986 immigration bill were credited with causing widespread fraud and abuse. In fact, the New York Times reported in 1989 that this provision led to "one of most extensive immigration frauds ever perpetuated against the United States government." In 1999, then INS General Counsel Paul Virtue, under President Clinton, testified before the House that "[t]he confidentiality restrictions of law [in the 1986 amnesty] also prevented INS from pursuing cases of possible fraud detected during the application process."

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