Key Effort to Stop Illegal Immigration Under Assault

Published Thursday, April 23, 1998 line front page]

Key Effort to Stop Illegal Immigration Under Assault

PRNewswire

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

April 23, 1998

WASHINGTON, April 23 /PRNewswire/ --

Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, is once again demonstrating that what he truly wants is uncontrolled U.S. borders. While Americans, nearly unanimously, want illegal immigration checked, Spencer Abraham is preparing to scrap Section 110 of the 1996 Immigration Act, which is aimed at identifying aliens who enter the country as visitors with the intent of overstaying their visas and breaking the law. It is a key, vital step in the effort to regain control of the borders.

Under Section 110 of the 1996 Act, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is directed to create "an automated entry and exit control system that will collect a record of departure for every alien departing the United States and match the record of the departure with the record of the alien' s arrival..."

The system was supposed to be up and running by September 30, 1998, but Congress has already granted the INS a one-year extension. Chairman Abraham' s legislation, S.1360, seeks to eliminate Section 110 all together.

According to government figures, nearly half of the more than five million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States are visa overstayers. Because we have lacked effective entry and exit controls, there is virtually no way to detect someone who arrives on a temporary visa and remains permanently. And, because Abraham led the effort to block the development of a secure national work eligibility verification system, illegal aliens can easily find jobs here.

FAIR is urging the United States Senate to stand firm on the preservation and implementation of Section 110 of the 1996 Immigration Act. "In a country that has been plagued by massive illegal immigration, in an era when international terrorists and criminals move easily around the globe, the very least our government can do is keep track of whether the aliens who enter this country as visitors leave when they are required to by law," said Stein.