Lamar Smith: “Mr. Chairman, the crime bill we are now considering has many shortcomings, but none is shorter than its overlooking of…”

“Mr. Chairman, the crime bill we are now considering has many shortcomings, but none is shorter than its overlooking of an entire criminal category--criminal aliens. To address that oversight, I offered an amendment that would have included numerous criminal alien provisions. To ensure that this oversight remained, the Committee on Rules rejected it. The problem of criminal aliens is real. Nationwide they make up 25 percent of Federal prisoners. In Texas, they make up over 40 percent. And in Los Angeles it was found that once released, 4 out of 10 criminal aliens returned to jail within 1 year. The American people have asked us to protect them against all criminals. Instead, this crime bill has a domestic-content law: only American criminals apparently need apply. As the law now stands, we cannot expeditiously depot criminal aliens. As the law now stands, we cannot even find criminal aliens because there are inadequate means for tracking or positively identifying them. As the law now stands, we cannot even properly define their crimes because kidnappings, child pornography, and commercial alien smuggling are not even classified as 'aggravated felonies.' According to this so-called crime bill, all that is OK because it contains nothing to change it. Criminal aliens is not a partisan issue. Yet my amendment was defeated in the Committee on Rules on a partisan vote.”