Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I would like to discuss a bill I am introducing today with my colleagues from North Carolina, Senators TILLIS and BURR, related to criminal gangs. Our bill would reform our immigration laws to protect the homeland and the public's safety by ensuring that criminal gang members are not eligible for deportation relief and are swiftly removed from the country.

Under current immigration laws, alien gang members are generally not deportable or inadmissible based on their gang membership, and they are eligible for various benefits and forms of relief.

Just this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, admitted it erred in granting deferred deportation to a known gang member who is now charged with four counts of 1st degree murder in North Carolina. In response to a letter Senator TILLIS and I sent them, USCIS stated that Emmanuel Jesus Rangel-Hernandez's request for deferred deportation under President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, executive order ``should not have been approved'' based on its procedures and protocols. This individual was placed in the removal process in March 2012, following drug charges, but was shielded from removal by USCIS even though the agency knew of his gang membership. After having received DACA, Mr. Rangel-Hernandez allegedly murdered four people.

Secretary Johnson testified today before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said, ``If you are a member of a gang, a known member of a criminal gang, you should not receive DACA. You should be considered priority for removal.'' The Secretary said that Rangel-Hernandez should not have been approved for DACA, and that there was a lapse in the background checks for this applicant.

The Rangel-Hernandez case shows that USCIS is not doing a thorough job reviewing the individuals who it allows to stay in this country under the President's deferred action program. It remains unclear whether USCIS has a zero tolerance policy for criminals and criminal gang members applying for DACA, or any other immigration benefit or form of relief from removal. It is unclear how many individuals have received DACA that shouldn't have. So far, since 2013, 282 individuals who are known gang members or criminals have had their DACA benefit terminated. The review of all cases, as ordered by Secretary Johnson, is ongoing, so that number could climb.

In April 2015, nearly 1,000 gang members and associates from 239 different gangs were arrested in 282 cities across the U.S. during Project Wildfire, a 6-week operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's, ICE, Homeland Security Investigations. Of those arrested, 199 were foreign nationals from 18 countries in South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director expressed concern about criminal gangs and said, ``Criminal gangs inflict violence and fear upon our communities, and without the attention of law enforcement, these groups can spread like a cancer.''

Despite the concern about violent criminal gangs, ICE arrests are down. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, ``arrests peaked in 2012, then dropped by more than 25 percent in 2013, and continued to decline in 2014.''

Furthermore, under the Fourth Circuit's decision in Holder v. Martinez, former gang members may argue that their status as a former gang member similarly entitles them to remain in the United States. This ruling has opened the door to violent gang members renouncing their membership as a ruse to stay in the country. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice didn't appeal the ruling, signaling support for gang members to remain in the country.

The Grassley-Tillis-Burr bill seeks to ensure that alien gang members are not provided a safe haven in the United States. It defines a criminal alien gang, renders them inadmissible and deportable, and requires the government to detain them while awaiting deportation. The bill also prohibits criminal alien gang members from gaining U.S. immigration benefits such as asylum, Temporary Protected Status, Special Immigrant Juvenile visas, deferred action or parole, with limited exceptions for law enforcement purposes. Lastly, the bill provides an expedited removal process for terrorists, criminal aliens and gang members.

I hope my colleagues will agree that our immigration laws, and the administration's policies, must be reformed so that those who pose a threat to the public are not allowed to remain in the United States and take advantage of the benefits we provide.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source