Sen. Bob Graham: “today I am introducing the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act of 1994 with my colleagues Senators D'Amato, Mack…”

“today I am introducing the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act of 1994 with my colleagues Senators D'Amato, Mack, Feinstein, Bryan, Boxer, McCain, and Hutchison. The legislation is similar to an amendment I successfully offered to the crime bill in the Senate on November 16, 1993. This bill strengthens the language in the Senate crime bill and would require the Federal Government, as the entity that is solely responsible for our Nation's immigration and naturalization policy, to incarcerate or to reimburse State and local units of government for the cost of incarcerating criminal aliens. During consideration of the crime bill in the Senate late last year, much was said about the failure of State and local government to control crime. The failure is one of a lack of adequate resources and one for which the Federal Government also has a responsibility. Consequently, to address this problem, our legislation attempts to acknowledge the following: First, the Federal Government should be a partner with State and local units of government and assist them in the effort to attack our Nation's crime problem; and, second, the Federal Government has failed to accept its responsibility for immigration policy, and thereby, criminal aliens.”