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A potential expansion of the government's power to detain and remove illegal immigrants without hearings or review raises numerous policy, resource and logistical questions, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

Several lawmakers have recently expressed interest in broadening the use of expedited removal, which allows the government to immediately send home illegal aliens who lack proper documentation, or have committed fraud or willful misrepresentation of facts, without further hearings or review, unless the alien indicates a fear of persecution.

The government can use expedited removal against illegal aliens at ports of entry and those found within 100 miles of the Southwest border. The Homeland Security Department expanded the use of the procedure last month to include all border patrol sectors along the Southwest and Northern borders. Some say the authority should be applied to illegal aliens caught anywhere within the country, CRS noted in the report.

"There have been discussions about expanding expedited removal to include all groups authorized under statute," CRS stated. "Aliens who had illegally entered the United States and could not prove that they had been continuously present for more than two years would be detained and removed without hearings or review unless they claimed asylum."

"Whether the policy should be made mandatory and extended into the interior of the country is emerging as an issue," the report stated. "Expanding expedited removal raises a set of policy, resource and logistical questions."

Issues cited include: due process for illegal aliens, the protection of rights, cost and resources, and coordination between the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection bureaus.

"Proponents of expanding expedited removal point to the lengthy procedural delays and costs of the alien removal process," the report stated. "They argue that aliens who entered the country illegally should not be afforded the due process and appeals that those who entered legally are given under the law ... Advocates for requiring mandatory expedited removal further maintain that it is an essential policy tool to handle the estimated 10.4 million unauthorized aliens in the United States as of 2004."

Opponents argue that an expansion would present "significant logistical problems," CRS added. "They cite increased costs caused by mandatory detention and the travel costs of repatriation. They also express concern that apprehended aliens will not be given ample opportunity to produce evidence that they are not subject to expedited removal."

The report did not draw any policy conclusions or make any recommendations.

COMMENTS

• Regarding reason number 10: One of the problems we face is the cost of U.S. workers. I'm not justifying the outsourcing, just pointing out the obvious. If some business owner gets the break of not having to pay the huge corporate taxes we levy against the rich, only has to pay workers pennies, and can lease his facilities for some bribery money, why would he want to pay what it costs in the states? A couple of decades ago we had a "Look for the Union Label" campaign. It was great, patriotic and everyone knew that it would help retain American jobs in the hands of Americans. But what happened? Those same union workers said forget these prices and bought at KMart, Wal-Mart or any other X-mart where the prices were the lowest, regardless of where the goods were made. Unions have done great things for workers in this nation, but they are equally to blame for the cost of our goods due to our better than world-average wages. For me, the ultimate example of this is the Saturn plant in Tennessee a few years ago, where the union employees went on strike to guarantee longevity of employment. Whoopsie-Daisey Posted October 20, 2005 10:07 AM
• Lies, lies, lies - wake up America or you will just become another Third World country. GovExec.com reader Posted October 20, 2005 6:01 AM
• The old INS headquarters sent a request for information on H1B visa holders to the field in an attempt to take the temperature on the fraud associated with this type of visa. I drove out to this high-tech corporation and found that the company had laid-off the Chinese nationals in question. I called the company's corporate offices in Boston and one of the senior in-house attorneys mouthed-off. I explained, "the law states that you have to notify the INS that an H1B employee no longer works there." She said, "Yeah, well it (the law) doesn't say when." "I am telling you when, now" I replied. I was stunned as the faxes poured in showing that some 142 of China's top computer scientists this company brought into the United States were running loose, completely unaccounted for, at a time when Congress was proposing more H1B visas to meet some "shortfall" in qualified computer scientists. When it comes to work visas, as the old saying goes: "Figures lie, and liars figure." GovExec.com reader Posted October 19, 2005 4:34 PM