Senate Proceeding 05-25-06 on May 25th, 2006 :: 0:14:02 to 0:21:29
Total video length: 7 hours 25 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:530 Duration: 0:07:27 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

0:13:54 to 0:14:08( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: you're going to disappear, you're going to be killed, not even going to be seen again in your home country. and i think in this particular case, while i think the people that propose the base portion of

0:14:02 to 0:21:29( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Coburn

0:14:08 to 0:14:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: this text are accurate in seeing a problem that's grown wide in its litigation, the narrow impact of this and the backwardness of the adjudication process having the final order being a lower standard

0:14:26 to 0:14:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: than this initial one and the likelihood of physical harm, if not death, to the individual being sent home, this is -- we shouldn't be doing that. we shouldn't be allowing that to happen. and i would

0:14:44 to 0:14:58( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: hope that we could pass this amendment to change that standard so that the final order and the temporary order at the same adjudication status, and we don't get people killed inadvertently because we

0:14:58 to 0:15:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: put in a different status in this.p mr. brownback: i think this is important. i think lives are at stake with this one. in far too many places around the world that i've seen that i've been to, you

0:15:05 to 0:15:13( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: can think and you can articulate a number of them that would come forward, be it the case in burma, be it the case in a number of countries that are dictatorships in africa. you could look at turkmenistan.

0:15:13 to 0:15:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: i met yesterday with some human rights activist from turkmenistan. the real question there, what happens to you? china, some real questions in that country, particularly if you were a member of falun gong

0:15:26 to 0:15:39( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: and you come here and you -- or you are a student activist or knew somebody that was a student activist. and again most of it is on your word at this point in time, and you can't meet the clear and

0:15:39 to 0:15:53( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: convincing status. i would hope we could pass this amendment, and i think i'm fearful if we don't you're going to see people sent back to death. i don't want to see us doing something like that.

0:15:53 to 0:16:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: i thank my colleague for proposing it. i appreciate those who are dealing with this issue. i do think this will be a good amendment for us to pass. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: who yields

0:16:10 to 0:16:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: time? a senator: a few months ago i offered an amendment that codified the process of expedited removal and extended it to include criminal aliens. mr. coburn: we've got remember, this is about criminal aliens.

0:16:26 to 0:16:38( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: what we do know from one of the judiciary hearings is somewhere between 6% and 8% of the people coming across our southern border have a criminal history. there are valid points to the questions

0:16:38 to 0:16:45( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: that have been raised by the senator from wisconsin, who i have the utmost respect for, but i think this is a question about what could happen versus what's getting ready to happen. what's getting

0:16:45 to 0:16:59( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: ready to happen is instead of 28% of our federal prisoners today being illegal aliens, it's going to become 45% and 50% because they're going to stay here. we're going to give them 27 months. they're

0:16:59 to 0:17:12( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: being to stay here. and what we're trying to do with this is to have a balance. is it possible that somebody could be denied entry into this country and have a negative consequence? yes. but it's

0:17:12 to 0:17:35( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: far more likely there's going to be a tremendous negative consequence to us and our costs and our children as we allow this system to continue to go on and be perpetuated the way that it is. i would

0:17:35 to 0:17:53( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: also remind you that current law under what we call expedited removal is law, and it is being carried out. what this amendment does will get rid of the expedited and ultimately will get rid of the removal.

0:17:53 to 0:18:11( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: and what we're going to see on criminal aliens is we're going to see our prisons not have a 28% illegal aliens that are criminals. we're going to have 50%. the cost right now is $7 billion a year

0:18:11 to 0:18:25( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: in our country. $1.7 billion of that is associated with federal prison costs for illegal immigrants. so we're talking about expedited removal. the other thing to remember, we're talking about somebody

0:18:25 to 0:18:34( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: -- this is only going to be applied to people who have been here less than 14 days and within 100 miles of the border. the administration opposes this amendment and for good reasons. the feingold amendment

0:18:34 to 0:18:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: would allow aliens to remain in the united states and would perpetuate the incentive for aliens to pursue even the most meritless appeals, and that's what happens when we allow this. now, i'm not a lawyer,

0:18:44 to 0:18:50( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: but i know that if the obligation for clear and convincing evidence is a high standard, and that is a difficult thing, but we have to measure it against all the other consequences of not having that

0:18:50 to 0:19:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: standard. the arguments that the senator from wisconsin makes, they're real, they're true. but he doesn't talk about what the downside is and the cost and the lost opportunity and actually human grief

0:19:00 to 0:19:12( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: that comes from having that process for those that are going to bear the cost of it. the section that the senator from wisconsin focuses on in his amendment is already law. it is already the u.s.

0:19:12 to 0:19:25( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: code, section 242-f28usc-f52. all my amendment does is add that the judicial injunction being b amended to include stays. what's happened is 90% of these stays are overturned right now -- 90% of

0:19:25 to 0:19:38( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: them are our -- overturned at the appellate division. so what we're saying is for what could happen compared to what is happening and what's the cost of that. and the heart of the senator from wisconsin

0:19:38 to 0:19:49( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: is good. the heart from the senator from kansas is good. the question is how do we balance that with the human cost of carrying out this sacrifice of not being 100%. we could be 100%. we could not allow

0:19:49 to 0:20:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: anybody to return to their country until we know they're going to be adequately clothed and fed. forget abuse. forget incarceration. what about the standard of making sure they have the same opportunities

0:20:00 to 0:20:09( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: that americans have. we're not applying that standard to these people, the 90% where the stays are denied. so i don't challenge what could happen to somebody who is denied the basis of asylum. what i ask

0:20:09 to 0:20:20( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: is where is the common sense on how we handle these thousands and thousands and thousands of cases that allow somebody 27 months here who uses the claim of asylum which, in fact, that has nothing to

0:20:20 to 0:20:32( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: do with why they're here but allows them to stay another 27 months. it also raises the tremendous cost for us because they not only have to be held. they have to be defended. which we're paying for

0:20:32 to 0:20:54( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: that, as well. so i -- the points made by the senators from kansas and wisconsin on the possibilities of what could happen, that's true. they could. but it doesn't consider what's going to happen

0:20:54 to 0:21:11( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: if we continue to allow this abuse of the system where an injunction is forbidden by federal law and a stay is issued because they can't offer an injunction, because it's illegal to do so. so is it a difficult

0:21:11 to 0:21:29( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: issue? yes. do i see the problem of abuse of this much greater than they? yes. do i balance the scales differently? yes. because the undetermined cost and the undetermined consequence of the way that

0:21:29 to 0:21:49( Edit History Discussion )

Russell Feingold: we're doing it now is just as dangerous in the long-range measure of humanity as if the potential dangers of one person, even if it's one, if only one person was denied asylum, just one, should we go

0:21:29 to 0:24:52( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Russell Feingold