William F. Smith: “I strongly support H.R. 10. This legislation includes important immigration provisions that are vital to improving…”

“I strongly support H.R. 10. This legislation includes important immigration provisions that are vital to improving homeland security. The expansion of expedited removal is particularly important to me because it is a provision I originally authored in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act of 1996. Back in the mid 1990s, thousands of aliens arrived at our airports without valid documents and then made fraudulent asylum claims. They knew they would be released into the community pending their asylum hearing, and few were ever heard from again. We created expedited removal to allow us to immediately return an alien to their country of origin if they showed up in the U.S. without proper documentation. The result is that we no longer have a serious problem of aliens arriving with false documents at airports. The situation is much different on our land borders. Every day thousands of aliens enter the country illegally, and because we do not have adequate detention space, they are released pending a hearing. A high percentage of these aliens, and this should not surprise anybody, are not from Mexico, they are from every other country you can imagine.”