By
Juan Mann
· November 30, 2005 12:52 AM
It’s official! According to President Bush, speaking Monday in Tucson, Arizona:
“One of the most effective tools we have in this effort is a process called expedited removal. Under expedited removal, non-Mexicans are detained and placed into streamlined proceedings. It allows us to deport them at an average of 32 days, almost three times faster than usual. In other words, we're cutting through the bureaucracy. Last year we used expedited removal to deport more than 20,000 non-Mexicans caught entering this country illegally between Tucson and Laredo. This program is so successful that the Secretary has expanded it all up and down the border. This is a straightforward idea. It says, when an illegal immigrant knows they'll be caught and sent home, they're less likely to come to the country. That's the message we're trying to send with expedited removal.”
Oh yeah?
The Commander In Chief is referring to the expedited removal provisions of Immigration Act Section 235(b) — which his own administration has still failed to implement to the fullest extent granted by Congress almost ten years ago.
The Section 235(b) authority as written by Congress allowed the summary removal of illegal aliens apprehended anywhere in the United States — within two years of entering illegally.
This expedited removal authority was created by the 104th Congress in amendments to the Immigration Act called the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996." The IIRIRA, known as the 1996 Act was signed by President Clinton on September 30, 1996, and became effective on April 1, 1997. The IIRIRA cut back on relief available for criminal aliens and known foreign terrorists, and called for the mandatory detention of more classes of convicted criminals who are foreign nationals.
So far, Immigration Act Section 235(b) has managed to withstand the legal onslaught of the pro-alien lobby in the federal courts.
But immediately after passage in 1996, the Clinton Administration, through then-INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, shamelessly mothballed most of Section 235(b). The Section 235(b) authority was only put into effect for immigration inspectors at ports of entry, not for any immigration officers in the interior of the country or outside of airport buildings.
But the Bush Administration has added its own stamp on crippling the expedited removal authority. It has implemented it slowly, partially and grudgingly—adding geographic restrictions, time restrictions, and also exempting Mexicans from the process entirely.
- In November, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced regulations to cover illegal aliens arriving in the United States "at sea" under Section 235(b). I applauded the effort.
- In August, 2004, the Department of Homeland Security under the Bush Administration announced regulations allowing the Border Patrol to summarily remove illegal aliens found within 100 miles of a land border . . . if discovered within two weeks of their illegal entry.
The game of "pass the border and you’re home" with illegal aliens had gotten harder, but the Section 235(b) non-implementation scandal continued.
Remember that Congress has already given the federal executive agencies the absolute authority to summarily remove aliens found anywhere in the United States— within two years of entering illegally!
Alluding to Immigration Act Section 235(b) might make for some great (and desperately-needed) speech material right now.
But until the Bush Administration implements expedited removal law to the fullest extent of the law, that’s all it is — speech material.
Remember . . . you heard it here first:
[Original posting from the Juan Mann Archive on VDARE.com]
