287(g) - hearing on problems related to criminal aliens in the state of utah (july 27, 1998)

8/14/2019 287(g) - Hearing on Problems Related to Criminal Aliens in the State of Utah (July 27, 1998)

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BEFORE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON

IMMIGRATION AND CAIMMS

OF

COMMITTEE

OF REPRESENTATIVES

FIFTH

JULY 27, 1998

Printed for of Committee on Judiciary

U.S. GOVERNMENT OFFICE

U.S.

Superintendent or DocurnenLs, Congmssional Sales Office, Washington, 20402

0-16-058594-5



COMMITTEE THE JUDICIARY

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois,

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan

Wisconsin BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts

BILL McCOLLUM, Florida CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New YorkGEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania HOWARD L. BERMAN, California

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina RICK BOUCHER, Virginia

LAMAR SMITH, Texas JERROLD NADLER, New YorkELTON GALLEGLY, California ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia

CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina

BOB INGLIS, South Carolina ZO E LOFGREN, California

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas

STEPHEN E. BUYER, Indiana MAXINE WATERS, CaliforniaED BRYANT, Tennessee MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts

BOB BARR, Georgia ROBERT WEXLER, Florida

WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey

ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas

EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

JAMES E. ROGAN, Califomia

MARY BONO, California

TihoAs E.

IMMIGRATION CLAIMS

LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas,

ELTON GALLEGLY, California

WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee

EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

BRYANT, Tennessee

E. ROGAN, California

MARY BONO, California

MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New YorkHOWARD L. BERMAN, California

ZOE LOFGREN, California

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida

CoRiA A. STROM,EDWARD R. GRANT,



HEARING DATE

J uly 7,

OPENING STATEMENT

Smith, lon. Lamar, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas,and chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims ................................

WITNESSES

Callaghan, Mary, Commissioner, Salt Lake County Commission ...................... 5Cannon, Chris, a Representative in Congress from the State of Utah .............. 3Kennard, Aaron, Sheriff, Salt Lake County 11Reed, Mark, Regional Director, Central Region, Immigration and Naturaliza-

tion S erv ce 2 4Schwendiman, David United States Attorney, District of Utah, U.S. De-

partm ent of Ju stice

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

Callaghan, Mary, Commissioner, Salt Lake County Commission: Preparedsta emen t

Cannon, Chris, a Representative in Congress from the State of Utah: Pre-pared statem en t 4

Kennard, Aaron, Sheriff, Salt Lake County: Prepared statement 12Reed, Mark, Regional Director, Central Region, Immigration and Naturaliza-

tion Service: Prepared statem entSchwendiman, David United States Attorney, District of Utah, U.S. De-

partm ent of Justice: Prepared statement 22



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATIONAND CLAIMS,

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9 a.m. in the Chap-man Branch Library, 577 South 900 West, Salt Lake City, Utah,Lamar Smith [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.

Present: Representatives Lamar Smith and Christopher B. Can-non.

Staff Present: Jim Wilon, Counsel; Judy Knott, Staff Assistant.

OPENING OF PRESIDING CHAIRMAN SMITH

Mr. SMITH. The field hearing of the Judiciary Committee of theHouse of Representatives will come to order.

I want to make some personal comments before we get into theofficial opening statements.

First of all, let me say to Congressman Cannon's friends and sup-

porters and constituents and fellow law enforcement officials, thathe has already earned a reputation in Washington for being

thoughtful and smart, for having common sense and good

ment.In addition to that, it is all too rare in Congress that we have

members who have good business sense, and Chris Cannon is one

of those individuals. That is why it is a pleasure for me to servewith him. It is certainly a pleasure to have him on the ImmigrationSubcommittee as well.

I have been chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee now foralmost 4 years, but this is the first field hearing that the Immigra-

tion Subcommittee has held while I have been chairman. We would

not be here but for the fact that all of us, and I in particular, have

great respect for Congressman Cannon and his judgment. When hecomes to me on the House floor, which he has been doing for many

months now, and says, "We have a problem in Salt Lake and Iwant you to hear about it and see it firsthand," I am going to bethere. And the fact that this is our first field hearing indicates not

only my high regard for Chris Cannon, but also the importance ofthe subject itself.

Let me mention one other thing about Congressman Cannon.

When I arrived at the airport late last night, Congressman Cannon

and his wife and their 4-month-old baby daughter met me at the



gate and picked me up. And then all four of us, including the baby,went for at least an hour-long tour of the city, which shows thegreat pride he has, not only in his community, but also in hischurch, I might add, if that is not mixing church and state toomuch today.

And then, of course, he had to drive back home and then comeback this morning another hour's drive or more, given the construc-tion on the highway, for a 7 o'clock breakfast. It was most impres-sive for me to see firsthand what Chris Cannon does for friends aswell as what he does for constituents.

Now we are going to get to opening statements. After the open-ing statements, we will introduce the witnesses on the panels, heartheir testimony, ask them questions, and look forward to their an-swers.

I will give my opening statement and then recognize Congress-man Cannon for his immediately after.

The most fundamental obligation of any government is to ensurepublic safety. Our Federal, State, and local governments have aduty to work together to fight crime and keep our streets safe forAmerican families and American communities.

Congressman Cannon, my Immigration Subcommittee colleague,has been a strong advocate for the people of Utah on public safetyissues and on many other issues as well. I am grateful that he hasinvited me to Salt Lake City to hear your concerns so we can look

for solutions together.Unfortunately, some of the problems occurring in Salt Lake City

are also found in other American cities. In fact, they are all too fa-miliar.

Illegal immigrants cross the border and travel within the UnitedStates with little fear of being apprehended or deported. There arenow more than five million illegal aliens within the United States,with another quarter million arriving every year, and those arevery, very conservative figures.

Some of these illegal aliens are also habitual criminals, and

many, of course, are drug traffickers as well. They bring with thema plague of violence, theft and drug addiction, and they impose aharsh fiscal cost on local taxpayers who must foot the bill for newjails and increased law enforcement.

Local government law enforcement officials work hard to copewith this threat to public safety, but when they are faced with amassive and continual onslaught of criminal illegal aliens, they caneasily become overwhelmed.

When there is not enough space in the jails and prisons, criminalillegal aliens may have to be released. When the Immigration and

Naturalization Service does not apprehend and detain and deportillegal aliens, they go right back into American communities wherethey often commit additional crimes.

This is a vicious circle. When criminals believe they will not bepunished, they increase their criminal activity, which makes iteven harder for local law enforcement to keep up.

What is needed is a higher level of communication and coopera-tion among local, State, and Federal officials. You have a right toexpect that when a criminal is arrested, the INS will help deter-

mine quickly if he or she is an illegal alien. Ifa criminal is an

ille-



gal alien, the should detain and deport that person imme-diately.

Finally, if a deported criminal alien reenters this country ille-gally, he or she should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Since 1994, Congress has given the IN S more money each yearfor Border Patrol, interior enforcement, and detention facilities.However, at the same time that resources have been increased, theproblems of illegal immigration have grown. It is not enough to in-crease funding. The agency must also improve its management andoperations.

We look forward today to hearing the testimony of witnesses onhow the local, state, and Federal authorities can work together toaddress the problems brought to Utah by criminal illegal aliens. Ihope today's hearing will be a useful contribution to that coopera-tive effort. I will now recognize the gentleman from Utah, Rep-resentative Cannon.

OF CHRIS REPRESENTATIVE INFROM THE OF

Mr. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, fellow citi-zens, I would like to thank you all for gathering here today in Utahon an issue that I believe we are all increasingly aware of and con-cerned about-illegal immigration.

When I first went to Congress, almost 2 years ago now, and

started talking about some of the illegal immigrant problems backhome, most people were pretty skeptical.

Then I presented these statistics, as reported in 1995, by the SaltLake County Board of Commissioners:

Twenty percent of illegal aliens migrating to Utah do so forcriminal activity-bringing drugs to sell or exchange for stolengoods, mostly guns;

Forty-five percent of homicides in Salt Lake County involve ille-gal aliens; and

Eighty percent of those arrested for felony level narcotics viola-tions in Salt Lake County-80 percent were undocumented aliens,but only 6 percent of these ended up in INS hands, so we are notmoving them very well.

The problems of illegal immigration no longer touch only our bor-der States such as California, New York, Florida and the chair-man's own State of Texas. In fact, INS statistics show that out ofevery three illegal aliens that cross the border, only one is pickedup by the border guard.

As a result, Salt Lake City, at the crossroads of Interstate 15which extends up from the south, and Interstate 80, which extendseast and west, has today become the new area of opportunity fordrug-trafficking, in particular, and illegal immigration, in general,as these problems spread out from our border States and into ourinteriorStates-like Utah.

Today, we will hear testimony from several witnesses who willdescribe the illegal immigration situation in Utah and the ways inwhich local, State and Federal representatives have come togetherto address this issue.

At the Federal level, I have worked with my congressional col-

leagues on several measures to both elevate awareness of the inte-



rior illegal immigration enforcement problem and find ways tosolve it, including:

Increasing personnel in and funding the offices locatedin interior States to help apprehend and process criminal aliens;.

Equipping these offices and jails nationwide with identificationsystems linked to the FBI and other law enforcement databases tohelp streamline processing of criminal aliens;

Making available to our interior States a program that has beenvery successful in California that will place an IN S agent actuallyin jails in areas with high concentration of criminal aliens to iden-tify and process them before arraignment and remove them asquickly as possible in the Federal system; and,

Instituting a new program that will allow the cross-deputization

of local, State and Federal law enforcement so they can work to-gether better to apprehend and deport criminal aliens.

For the past 2 years, the Utah delegation has worked to includelanguage within both the House and Senate Commerce, Justice,State and the Judiciary Appropriations bills for fiscal yearsand to encourage the IN S and Marshals Service to focus oilthe problem that many of the witnesses will talk about, that is, thelack of detention space to hold criminal aliens.

This same appropriations bill for fiscal year has languagerequesting that the INS develop a comprehensive interior enforce-

ment strategy-I will be interested in hearing about the progresson this strategy in the hearing today.

With that, I would just like to say again that I appreciate thededication of everyone here present, in putting forth to stop crimi-nal illegal immigration. I look forward to taking a closer look atthese issues today and continuing to work together to combat thisserious problem.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.[The prepared statement of Mr. Cannon follows:]

PREPARED REPRESENTATIVE

THE OF

PROBLEMS RELATED TO CRIMINAL

OF

Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, fellow citizens, would like to thank all ofyou for gathering here today in Utah on an issue that believe we are all increas-ingly aware of and concerned about-illegal immigration.

%en I first went to Congress, almost two years ago now, and started to talkabout some of the illegal immigration problems back home, most people were prettyskeptical.

Then I presented these statistics, as reported in by the Salt Lake CountyBoard of Commissioners:

20 percent of illegal aliens migrating to Utah do so for criminal activity-bringing drugs to sell or exchange for stolen goods (mostly guns);

45 percent of homicides in Salt Lake County involved illegal aliens; and

percent of those arrested for felony level narcotics violations in Salt LakeCity were undocumented aliens, but only six percent of these ended up inhands.

The problems of illegal immigration no longer touch only our border states such

as California, New York, Florida and the Chairman's ow n state of Texas. In fact,INS statistics show that out of every three illegal aliens to cross the border, onlyone is picked up by the border guard.

a result, Salt Lake City, at the crossroads of Interstate which extends upfrom the south, and Interstate 80, which extends out from the west, has become



today a new area of opportunity for drug-trafficking, in particular, and illegal immi-gration, in general, as these problems spread out from our border states and intoour interior states-like Utah.-

Today, we will hear testimony from several witnesses who will describe the illegalimmigration situation in Utah and the ways in which local, state and federal rep-resentatives have come together to address this issue.

At the federal level, I have worked with my congressional colleagues on severalmeasures to both elevate awareness of the interior illegal immigration enforcementproblem and find ways to solve it, including:

increasing personnel in and funding for INS offices located in interior statesto help apprehend and process criminal aliens;

equipping these offices and jails nationwide with identification systems linked

to the FBI and other law enforcement databases to help streamline processingof criminal aliens;

making available to our interior states a program that has been very success-

ful in California that will place an agent actually in jails in areas withhigh concentration of criminal aliens to identify and process them before ar-

raignment and remove them as quickly as possible; andinstituting a new program that will allow the cross-deputization of local, stateand federal law enforcement so that they can work together better to appre-hend and deport criminal aliens.

For the past two years, the Utah delegation has worked to include language with-in both the House and Senate Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary Appro-

priations bills for fiscal year to encourage the and Marshal Service tofocus on a problem that many of the witnesses will talk about, the lack of detention

space for apprehended criminal aliens.This same appropriations bill has included language requesting that the INS de-

velop a comprehensive interior enforcement strategy-I will be interested in hearingabout the progress on this strategy.

With that, would just like to say again that I appreciate the dedication of every-one present here toward putting a stop to criminal illegal immigration. for-ward to taking a closer look at these issues today and continuing to work togetherto combat this serious problem.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. We will now go to our first panel: Ms.

Mary Callaghan, Commissioner, Salt Lake County Commission;

and Mr. Aaron Kennard, Sheriff, Salt Lake County.Ms. Callaghan, if you will begin.

Ms. Chairman Smith, Congressman Cannon, com-mittee staff, welcome to Salt Lake City. I am Mary Callaghan, amember of the Salt Lake County Board of Commissioners and theChair of Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Advisory Committee.I come before you to share some of our grave concerns regardingthe Federal Government's failure to fulfill its responsibility in re-moving criminal undocumented immigrants from our community.

Overthe past few

years, a consistent statistic which hasbeenvery troublesome to us is the fact that approximately percent of

all felony drug arrests in Salt Lake City are of undocumented im-migrants. Indeed, the percentage of undocumented immigrantsbeing arrested on felony drug charges has increased from 47 per-cent of all arrests county-wide in to percent in

There are many cases of this which we will address. Neverthe-less, please be aware that despite Salt Lake County's and its cit-ies' recent efforts including new jail beds, additional officersand equipment, the Salt Lake City number has remained at per-



cent since 1994 when it became apparent that we had a crisis on

our hands. Attached to my testimony are tw o pages listing SaltLake County's efforts over the past 3 years to address this issue;everything from incarceration, patrol and investigations, courts, co-ordination, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and youthservices. This is a cost to our taxpayers. To have such a small per-centage of our population who are here unlawfully committing somany serious crimes including homicide, attempted murder, drugsales, etc., is totally unacceptable.

equal concern is the fact that so far in we have had torelease other jail inmates who should have been detained but

havebeen freed due to the Federal decree which places a cap on

the total number of detainees within our jail. If we are not holdingto 140 undocumented immigrants on a typical day, we would

not be having this problem to this extent. As it is, we are spending

million property tax dollars on a new jail in part to addressthese required releases. We absolutely cannot let undocumentedimmigrant drug dealers have free reign over our streets. We, aslocal residents, cities counties, and the state, are doing our part toaddress this problem. But, we have neither the resources nor the

authority to do the Federal Government's as well.We request your assistance in four initiatives:First, the local INS office has received some new help and it has

made a difference in the number of illegal immigrants that the of-fice has been able to process. Nevertheless, the IN S still has many

more cases that it can handle. Congress has authorized approxi-mately new INS personnel, most of whom are slated for theBorder Patrol. This leaves the interior of our country unprotected.

Since tw o out of three attempts to illegally cross the borderare successful the INS's own figures, it makes little sense tohave the vast majority of IN S personnel stationed there. Rather, asignificant portion of these new agents should be spread among in-terior offices.

Second, there is a proposal to cross-deputize local police officersas INS officers. Let me emphasize that the Salt Lake County Com-mission does not desire the authority to arrest individuals for being

here illegally. Rather, we ask that when an individual is brought

to our jail on a criminal charge and it is then determined that heis an undocumented immigrant, we desire the authority to then as-sist the in transporting that person across state lines to an

INS holding facility in Denver or Las Vegas. This will decrease the

cells occupied undocumented immigrants and allow us to retain

and prosecute more of our local criminals.Third, the Senate's Committee on Appropriations has re-

ported out the fiscal funding bill the Justice Depart-

ment in which it was noted that a temporary holding facility forINS detainees should be constructed in Salt Lake City. the rec-ommendations you hear today, I believe this is the most critical.

The INS desperately needs a place in the Salt Lake City area inwhich it can hold undocumented immigrants for a few days until

arrangements can be made for their removal. This facility must be

built and anything you can do toassure this happens will be most

appreciated. Again, this will reserve limited space in our jails for

the detention and prosecution of our owner criminals.



Fourth, please extend the grant to include jail correctionalofficers. Thus far, the COPS grant has provided many new officers

who are on the street arresting criminals and bringing them to thejail where the incarcerating authority, be it a county or a city, doesnot have the staff to process them. The fact that we are being inun-dated with criminal undocumented immigrants oily exacerbatesthe problem. Please give consideration to this request.

In closing, please understand that we are grateful for all thatyou have done and we know that you have worked hard to ensurethat Utah has the resources necessary to deal with what has be-come our number one crime problem. The public is well aware ofthis issue and is demanding action. We simply cannot accept open

air drug markets and gun battles in our neighborhoods. The Fed-eral Government must step up and fulfill its responsibility to ad-dress this most pressing problem in our community. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Callaghan follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT MARY CALLAGHAN, COMMISSIONER, SALT LAKE COUNTY

COMMISSION

Chairman Smith, Congressman Cannon, and Committee Staff, welcome to Salt

Lake City. I am Mary Callaghan, a member of the Salt Lake County Board of Com-missioners and the Chair of the Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Advisory Com-mittee. I come before you to share some of our grave concerns regarding the federal

government's failure to fulfill its responsibility in removing criminal undocumentedimmigrants from our community. Over the past few years, a consistent statisticwhich has been very troublesome to us is the fact that approximately 80% of all fel-ony drug arrests in Salt Lake City are of undocumented immigrants. Indeed, the

percentage of undocumented immigrants being arrested on felony drug charges hasincreased from 47 % of all arrests county wide in 1996 to 53% in 1997.

There are many causes of this which I and my fellow panel members will address.

Nevertheless, please be aware that despite Salt Lake County's and its 13 cities' re-cent efforts including 350 new jail beds, additional officers and equipment, the Salt

Lake City number has remained at 80 % since 1994 when it became apparent thatwe had a crisis on our hands. Attached are two pages listing Salt Lake County's

efforts over the past three years to address this issue (attachment a). To have such

a small percentage of our population who are here unlawfully committing so manyserious crimes including homicide, attempted murder, drug sales, etc., is totally un-

acceptable.Of equal concern is the fact that so far in 1998 we have had to release 500 other

jail inmates who should have been detained but have been freed due to the federal

consent decree which places a cap on the total number of detainees within the jail.If we were not holding 100 to 140 undocumented immigrants on a typical day, wewould not be having this problem to this extent. As it is, we are spending132,000,000 property tax dollars on a new jail in part to address these required re-eases. We absolute ly cannot let undocumented immigrant drug dealers have freereign over our streets. W e as local residents, cities, counties and the state are doing

our part to address this problem. But, we have neither the resources nor the author-ity to do the federal government's job as well.

We request your assistance in four initiatives:First, the local INS office has received some new help and it has made a dif-

ference in the number of illegal immigrants that the office has been able to process.

Nevertheless, the INS still has many more cases than it can handle. Congress has

authorized a approximately 5,000 new INS personnel, most of whom are slated fo r the

border patro l.This leaves the interior of our country unprotected. Since two out ofthree attempts to illegally cross the U.S. border are successful by the INS's own fig-ures, it makes little sense to have the vast majority of personnel stationed

there. Rather, a significant portion of those new agents should be spread among in-terior offices.

Second, there is a proposal to cross deputize local police officers as INS officers.

Let me emphasize that the Salt Lake County Commission does not desire the au-

thority to arrest individuals fo r being here illegally. Rather, we ask that when anindividual is brought to the jail on a criminal charge and it is determined that he

is an undocumented immigrant, we desire the authority to then assist the INS in



transporting that person across state lines to an holding facility in Denver orLas Vegas. This will decrease the cells occupied undocumented immigrants andallow us to retain and prosecute more of our local criminals.

Third, the U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations has reported out the fiscalfunding bill for the U.S. Justice Department in which it was noted that a tem-

porary holding facility fo r detainees should be constructed in Salt Lake City(attachment Of the recommendations you will hear today, this is the most criti-cal. The INS desperately needs a place in the Salt Lake City area in which it canhold undocumented immigrants fo r a few days until arrangements can be made fortheir removal. This facility must be built and anything you can do to ensure thathappens will be most appreciated. Again, this will reserve limited jail space for thedetention and prosecution of our ow n criminals.

Fourth, please extend the COPS grant to include jail correctional officers. Thusfar, the COPS grant has provided many ne w officers who are on the street arrestingcriminals and bringing them to the jail where the incarcerating authority, be it acounty or a city, does not have the staff to process them. The fact that we are beinginundated with criminal undocumented immigrants only exacerbates the problem.Please give consideration to this request.

In closing, please understand that we are grateful for all that you have done andwe know that yo u have worked hard to ensure that Utah has the resources nec-essary to deal with what has become our number one crime problem. The public iswell aware of this issue and is demanding action. We simply cannot accept open airdrug markets and gun battles in our neighborhoods. The federal government muststep up and fulfill its responsibility to address this most pressing problem in ourcommunity. Thank you.

noted above, Utah has experienced increasing prob-lems with illegal and criminal aliens both transiting and remaining in Utah. In par-ticular, the lack of available jail space in Utah for INS detainees undercuts effortsby local police to intercept aliens. The is directed to designate Salt Lake City,

as a hub location for the criminal alien count) jail removal program and to es-tablish at Salt Lake City a temporary holding facility for criminal aliens. The IN Sis also directed to provide to the Committees on Appropriations reports on thelowing: the feasibility of locating a permanent IN S detention center at Salt LakeCity, and (2) the resources and training needed to address the overall INS missionin Utah, with specific reference to detention space and the number and distributionof agents assigned to the State. The reports should be delivered to the Committeesnot later than January 31, 1999.1

'See Senate Report entitledto accompany S.



jail beds are in place or.underconstruction.

Added new beds at the Oxbow Jail forfemale inmates which allowed convening the

main jail women's section to additionalbeds for mate inmatesReconfigured the converted section of the

Metro Tower tenth floor, which housed 40

female inmates, to house male inmates.

Converted the Metro Tower ninth floor from

offices to jail space for 53 mate inmates.Constructing new County jail which will

house inmates.

Upgraded the Sheriff's deputies' pay.

The County Commission authorized issuance ofthe full $120 million jail bond, acquiring anadditional million, and allowing

construction of fourth pod which raises the

original projected count from to

home confinement electronic

monitoring bracelets, and case manager.

Added four new jail screeners.

Added correctional officers.

Added 2 crime analysts in Sheriffs Office;

Sheriff's support staff.

Th e federal COPS program an d general County

funds add 20 Sheriffs dispatchers

, The federal COPS program an d County funds

additional patrol officers.

/Appropriated SI.5 million for a new

computerized Sheriff's dispatch system.

Upgraded the Sheriff's radios and

transmission equipment.

The County Commission will authorize

construction of a new Sheriff's Administration

Building and an Emergency Operations Center.

/Created a Peace Officers Standards & Training

Academy for Salt Lake County Sheriff's

officers an d other police agencies.

Th e County funded six new personnel an d

equipment for the District Attorney which,

among other positive results, increases

prosecutions an d reduces by six weeks the

required to process juvenile offenders.

victim advocates.

22 bailiffs and upgraded them in terms

of training an d pay.

County Commission funded 7 new

personnel in the Legal Defenders office



Commissioners met with Senator

Orrin Hatch for his assistance with the dramaticiicrease in criminal activity undocumented

immigrants. Senator Hatch brought this issue

to the attention of the Attorney General who

subsequently assigned I I additional INS agents

to the Salt Lake area and now a plane is flownto Salt Lake

Participate the networkwhich

new patterns and trends in

substance-abuse by-sharingindicators and incidences

violence street and gangin schools.

The reconstituted thecomposed

senior criminal justice officials who work

to by

The to run an alternativewhich provides

in incarceration as

(the state providesalcohol counseling

and education, thecounseling

of continues

with GovernorCongressional and federal and

agencies to and prevent crime.

The County Commission matched a

federal grant with to construct a

facility.

The County Commission added 50

detoxification beds at two local shelters,releasing jail beds for more serious offenders.

Commission, in cooperation with

Salt and the

$100,000 to implement a

County contracts

alcoholtreatment. An

usually

which

human

them

The Life enhancement

reviving

take

irmediate

than simply releasing them with a citation and acourt-date.



Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Commissioner Callaghan.Sheriff Kennard.

OF AARON D. KENNARD, SHERIFF, SALT LAKE

Mr. Thank you, Chairman Smith.First, let me, as the president of Utah's Sheriffs Association rep-

resenting all sheriffs, and the sixth vice president of the Na-

tional Sheriff's Association representing all the sheriffs in the coun-try, express our most heartfelt, deepest condolences and sym-

pathies to you Congresspeople for the loss of two of your frontline

officers. Any time that happens, it impacts all of us in law enforce-ment, as we are a family, and our condolences to you.

You have hearda

greatdeal today about crime in our county.

Commissioner Callaghan has fully and accurately stated our im-mense problem with illegal aliens who continue to pose a signifi-

cant crime problem to our community, due to their drug dealingand other illegal activities.

As sheriff of Salt Lake County, I operate two jails, and I provide

full police services for unincorporated Salt Lake County and sev-

eral municipalities. I actively support the DEA Metro NarcoticsTask Force, and I field a very productive Sheriffs Neighborhood

Drug Task Force that focuses on drug dealing in our residential

areas.Today, I offer you my personal testimony that one of our top

crime problems here in Salt Lake valley is criminals who come to

our valley and use their illegal and undocumented status to help

cover their criminal enterprises, that includes selling drugs and

committing violent crimes.As we approach the turn of the millennium, we face new chal-

lenges that might significantly impact crime. We will host the 2002

Winter Olympics, and we face tremendous growth here in this val-

ley. This will open even more potential to prey on our community.

We must deal with current significant crime problems now so thatthey don't continue to impact us as we move forward.

Indeed, one of the significant crime problems that currently im-

pacts our valley is that which is perpetrated by criminals who are

in our country and in our community illegally. My jail system has

felt the brunt of that impact more than any single police agency inthe State.

We have not been able to fulfill our responsibility to incarcerate

persons who are pending adjudication. This greatly frustrates theefforts of me and my staff. In order to help meet the challenges of

our growing jail population, we have taken some creative steps tohelp us get by until our new jail is built.

We have used electronic monitoring. This program, along with

creative conversion of administration jail space has allowed us toincrease our net capacity by 350 additional beds.

Still, the criminal aliens remain a serious burden on our jail pop-

ulation, and they are a continual threat to the community.

Next year, we will open a new 2,000-bed jail. Until that addi-

tional capacity comes on-line, I have identified four additional ac-



tions that might help relieve the crowding and better serve ourcommunity.

First, we successfully commit judges to accepting guilty pleas todrug charges and sentencing illegal aliens to jail, depending vol-untary deportation. In order for this initiative to succeed, INSneeds to remove illegals from my jails as quickly as possible. Atany given time, I have more than 40 prisoners awaiting deporta-tion.

Second, INS has a fingerprinting system which they use to trackillegal aliens. It is independent of the fingerprint system WIN, theWestern Identification Network, used in my jails. Since INS doesnot interface their system with WIN, it would benefit IN S to installa personal identification device in our jail to identify illegal aliensthat have not be entered in the WIN system. This would help pre-vent premature release -of repeat offenders who have not beenthrough my jail system.

Third, I believe the INS needs to station an agent at our metro-politan jail in order to maximize the efficiency of the other stepsI have addressed. Certainly, this would significantly benefit ourlocal law enforcement initiatives aimed at addressing crime by ille-gal aliens. But it would also complete a systemic solution to theproblem of crime committed by illegal aliens now, and for years tocome.

Finally, I suggest the IN S create several "Disruption Teams" con-sisting of six to eight agents. These teams would move into selec-tive problem areas, identify criminal illegal aliens and their sup-port systems, which also consist of illegal aliens. This would inturn disrupt and deport criminal aliens and their support systemuntil the problem ceases to exist. The team would then move on toanother problem area. I believe that such a problem-solving activ-ity would be a very efficient and effective way for IN S to deploy itsresources here in our valley and around the Nation.

I believe that our firsthand experience here in Salt Lake valleywith crime associated with criminal illegal aliens gives us the drivetoward finding innovative ways to deal with such crime. Today, weask the Immigration and Naturalization Service to become a moreaggressive partner with us in attacking this level of crime in ourvalley. Thank you, sir.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kennard follows:]

OF D. LAKE

Chairman Smith, Congressman Cannon, and Committee Staff, also welcome youto Salt Lake City. am Sheriff Aaron D, Kennard, Salt Lake County Sheriff, andmember of the Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Advisory Executive Committee.I am also President of the Utah Sheriffs Association, and 6th Vice President of the

National Sheriffs Association.You have heard a great deal today about crime in our county. CommissionerCallaghan has fully and accurately stated our immense problem with illegal alienswho continue to pose a significant crime problem to our communities, due to theirdrug dealing and other illegal activities.

As Sheriff of Salt Lake County, operate two jails, and I provide full police serv-ices for unincorporated Salt Lake County and several municipalities. I actively sup-port the DEA Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force, and I field a very productive Sher-iffs Neighborhood Drug Task Force that focuses on drug dealing in our residentialareas.

Today, offer you my personal testimony that one of our top crime problems herein the Salt Lake valley, is criminals who come to our valley and use their illegal



and undocumented status, to help cover their criminal enterprises, that include sell-

ing drugs and committing violent crimes.

As we approach the turn of the millennium, we face new challenges that might

significantly '"pact crime. We will host the 2002 Winter Olympics. And, we face tre-

mendous growth. This will open even more potential for criminal predators to prey

on our community. We must deal with current significant crime problems no w sothat they don't continue to impact us as we move forward.

Indeed, one of the significant crime problems that currently impacts our valley is

that which is perpetrated by criminals who are in our country and our community

illegally. My jail system has felt the brunt of that impact more than any single po-lice agency.

We have not been able to fulfill our responsibility to incarcerate persons who are

pending adjudication. This greatly frustrates the efforts of me and my staff. In order

to help meet the challenges of our growing jail population, we have taken some cre-

ative steps to help us get by until our new jail is built.

We have used electronic monitoring. This program, along with creative conversion

of administration space to jail space has allowed us to increase our net capacity bythree hundred-fifty additional beds.

Still, the criminal aliens remain a serious burden on our jail population, and theyare a continual threat to the community.

Next year, we will open the new two-thousand bed jail. Until that additional ca-pacity comes online, I have identified four additional actions that might help relieve

the crowding and better serve the community.

First, we successfully convinced judges to start accepting guilty pleas to drug

charges and sentencing illegal aliens to jail, pending voluntary deportation. In

order for this initiative to succeed, INS needs to remove illegals from my jails asquickly as possible. At any given time, I have more than forty prisoners awaiting

deportation.Second, INS has a fingerprinting system which they use to track illegal aliens.

It is independent of the fingerprint system (Western Identification Network) used

in my jails. Since INS does not interface their system with WIN, it would benefit

INS to install a personal identification device in the jail to identify illegal aliensthat have not been entered in the WIN system. This would help prevent premature

release of repeat offenders who have not been through my jail system.

Third, I believe that INS needs to station an agent at our metropolitan jail in

order to maximize the efficiency of the other steps that I addressed. Certainly, this

would significantly benefit our local law enforcement initiatives aimed at addressing

crime by illegal aliens. But it would also complete a systemic solution to the prob-

lem of crime committed by illegal aliens now, and for years to come.

Finally, I suggest that the INS create several "Disruption Teams" consisting of

six to eight agents. These teams would move into selected problem areas, identify

criminal illegal aliens and their support systems, which also consists of illegal

aliens. This would in turn disrupt and deport criminal aliens and their support sys-

tem until the problem ceases to exist. The team would then move on to anotherproblem area. I believe that such a problem solving activity would be a very efficient

and effective way for INS to deploy its resources here in our valley, and around the

nation.I believe that our first hand experience here in the Salt Lake valley with crime

associated with criminal illegal aliens gives us the drive toward finding innovative

ways to deal with such crime. Today, we ask the Immigration and Naturalization

Service to become a more aggressive partner with us in attacking this level of crime

in our valley.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Let me thank you both for something else

as well. This morning the commissioner and the sheriff gave Con-

gressman Cannon and me a tour of the jail, and that was most in-formative.

What we saw and learned was helpful in a number of ways: we

saw the excellent job that your representatives and your law en-

forcement officials are doing, but we also got a firsthand picture of

the problem that we are discussing today.

The way this works is that Congressman Cannon and I will ask

questions of the witnesses and they will respond. I will now recog-

nize Congressman Cannon for his questions.

Mr. CANNON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.



Sheriff, what percentage of felony level narcotics arrests -are un-documented immigrants?

Mr. KENNARD. With Salt Lake City, they are reaching the 80 per-cent level. Throughout the entire county, it is now at 53 percent.

Mr. CANNON. Do youhave

anumber of those per week or per

month or for the year?Mr. KENNARD. With me, I have my jail commander, Captain Paul

Cunningham, and I would ask that you allow him to help answerquestions if I do not have them in front of me.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Currently for 1997, it would be over a thou-sand felony arrests.

Mr. CANNON. Now you have worked under a consent decree. Howmany consent decree releases, or CDRs, occur every week?

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. If I can, I can share some numbers with you

that are from 1997, also 1998. Back in 1996, we peaked out over3,600 CDR arrests. That dropped as we expanded the spaces, asthe commissioner and sheriff have told you, with the 300 beds. Sothat dropped to a thousand last year, and we are running aboutthe same pace this year.

According to the numbers we have in 1997, we believe that ap-proximately 400 illegal aliens were CDR.

Mr. CANNON. Would you mind, Sheriff, explaining briefly whatCDR means?

Mr. KENNARD. CDR means consent decree release. We are under

a Federal court order that we cannot exceed a specific number ofpopulation in the jail. Once we reach that cap, then we have tostart kicking prisoners loose. We determine the number to go outby their threat to society.

Usually the people who are in jail for property crimes are theones that go out, and the violent offenders don't go out. Drug deal-ing is considered a property crime, so that is basically what theCDR is.

Mr. CANNON. So the drug dealers are the first to go out?Mr. KENNARD. Some of the first. And the cap that has been men-

tioned, the real problem-one of the big problems also includes thefact that we hold these illegals in jail. INS will put a hold on them.

And once we have disposed of all the local charges and we inform

the INS that now they have to come get these people or we haveto charge the INS, about two-thirds of the time, the INS simplysays, Kick them loose, we can't deal with them. Sixty to 70 percent

of the people are then released by the INS.Mr. CANNON. Meaning they go outside?Mr. KENNARD. They go out.

And I will share with you another statistic, that probably 70 to

75, maybe as high as 80 percent of them, will reoffend.Mr. CANNON. Meaning they come back?Mr. KENNARD. They come back.

Mr. CANNON. Is it fair to say, or can you describe what is goingon in the city, the fact that we don't have the authority with re-

spect to kick these guys out, is that attractive for other people tocome back in?

Mr. KENNARD. Absolutely. These people are coming here for var-

ious reasons: number one, criminal enterprise, to make money. The



economy is such that they can make send it backto Mexico to take care of their family for months at a time.

They realize there are no jail beds here, there is no jail space.And the chances of them being prosecuted and locked up and outof business are very slim, and they know that.

Mr. CANNON. Is that the reason for your idea of which I thinkyou called disruption teams?Mr. KENNARD. Yes, sir.Mr. CANNON. We have become a target because we have become

known as not having jail beds. If you bring a disruption team in,they start busting these guys and sending them off to the Federalsystem and word gets out, Don't go to Salt Lake City because youare going to go to jail and do hard time.

Mr. KENNARD. Well, either that or be deported, and that wouldbe the idea for the disruption team, the IN S people, to be proactive

rather than reactive.And the commissioner mentioned that we are working with youfor cross-deputization. Let me reaffirm that I have no intention ofcross-deputizing my deputies so they can enforce the INS laws. Ihave enough to do in Salt Lake County with the local laws. I haveno intention of my people arresting people for illegal status.

My intention all along and continues to be if we have illegals inmy jail and they have documentation to prove that they don't be-long here and they need to be deported, the only thing I was askingfor was documentation and cross-deputization to allow my deputies

to assist the INS in deporting these people to Las Vegas or Denveror wherever.Mr. CANNON. And documentation, I take it, comes down to in

many cases just fingerprinting?Mr. KENNARD. Yes. That is one of the forms that INS uses, yes,

along with their entire form they have to fill out to prove that anindividual is an illegal.

Mr. CANNON. When we were at the jail, you mentioned some-thing about illegal aliens sometimes having 20 aliases.

Mr. KENNARD. That is correct.

Mr. CANNON. So the fingerprinting system is actually pretty sig-nificant?

Mr. KENNARD. It is a significant portion of it, and we have or-dered a new system. We have gone from 2 months, 2 weeks, hopingwe can take it to 2 hours and hopefully, eventually, that we canidentify any individual within 15 to 20 minutes.

Mr. CANNON. Let me ask Commissioner Callaghan, what is yoursense of how the U.S. Attorney's Office has been doing in progress-ing in prosecuting cases of aggravated felonies.

Ms. CALLAGHAN. We have been most appreciative. We have seen

more aggressive prosecution, we have seen and heard the benefits.We are most grateful for the additional U.S. attorneys that weresent to this region.

However, as was noted, a vast majority are still being released.And once they're released, the U.S. attorney can't prosecute, andthat is where we ask for the holding facility, et cetera.

Mr. CANNON. Would you tell us a little bit about how that hold-ing facility would function? I take it you are talking about one nearthe airport. How would it work?



Ms. CALLAGHAN. Right. The airport was mentioned because ofthe ability to use the airplanes conveniently. We are not specific onits location, but if we have several hundred individuals using up

space-and you saw this morning using up space in our jail, usingup personnel and equipment, whereas we need those individuals

for our own crime-solving resolutions-then we have another facil-ity to put them in.

We don't need a high security building as our jail is. If we hadanother facility near the airport, then those individuals could behoused there while the INS could perform its requirements andthen it would free up space in our jails for prosecution of our crimi-nals.

Mr. CANNON. The sheriff talked briefly about the goal being de-

portation. Don't we want these criminals to do time so they reallydon't want to come back here? Some kind of punishment that really

motivates them to stay away?Mr. KENNARD. Well, yes and no. We would just as soon if they'rehere illegally that they be deported. But if they're committingcrimes, yes, they should be paying the price, but it costs us tohouse them.

Once they are deported, if they come back again, then it is a fel-ony and the U.S. attorney can then prosecute them for aggravatedreentry, which makes them do some real hard time in Federal stat-ute.

Mr. CANNON. Okay. If I may, one more question. We have had

some adjustment in the INS staffing patterns. How does that work

and how does that affect the problem so far?Ms. CALLAGHAN. I have seen some improvements. For instance,

we have more use of the airplanes, buses, et cetera, but it is notsufficient. We still have significant holding time, and it is not sig-

nificant so we have to release the individuals.Mr. CANNON. That release is, as I recall the sheriff said, two-

thirds of these holdings are released.Mr. KENNARD. Were released, that is correct.Mr. CANNON. I am sorry. I know I said one more question, but

one more one more. If a person has a hold-is being held as an ille-

gal alien and is released, and then he is caught doing criminal ac-tivity as an illegal alien, does that first release count toward theFederal felony or is that not a Federal felony?

Mr. KENNARD. It is my understanding that until he has been de-

ported, he cannot be charged for felony aggravated reentry. Youmay have to ask that of the INS or U.S. attorney. That is my un-

derstanding, until they have been deported.Again, many of them have 10, 20, 30 aliases and they will come

in under a different name. And by the time we have put it all to-

gether and identified this, it is not a case that the U.S. attorneycan prosecute.

Mr. CANNON. Okay. Thank you.

Mr. SMITH. Commissioner, you made the valid point that thereneeds to be better cooperation among the local, State and Federal

Governments.You also made the valid point that it is not the local govern-

ment's job to do some of the things that the local government is

being required to do and also being required to pay for.



good example of that is an expansion of the jail from in-mates to a little over 2,000 inmates. That expansion, gather, islargely necessary because of the number of criminal aliens in thearea, and yet those criminal aliens ought to be detained theINS.

Right. Our current jail will only hold andwe are opening a new one to hold 2,000, in addition to bedsthat taxpayers paid for over the past years. The new jail cost

million.We can talk about it costs us several million to retrofit adminis-

tration buildings for new jail beds; we have added new intake offi-cers; additional help in substance abuse prevention and treatment;youth services; always divided and fulfilled all of our grants,and then we supplied the equipment, et cetera. So county tax-payers are paying for this with their county tax dollars, property

and sales.And let's not just talk about the indirect costs, but I am more

concerned about the effect on families. Once the drugs get started,it often becomes multigenerational and it is very difficult for drugtreatment and expensive.

I am very happy about this committee and to serve on it. AndI am concerned when parents call me and say, My child found adirty syringe on the school grounds or in our front yard. I am con-cerned when I see mothers torn from their children because they

have been addicted to drugs. I want to stop the drug trade here,

and that is the kind of costs we are talking about.Mr. SMITH. You anticipated my next question, which was a ques-

tion about the costs. And you just recounted how the costs are notjust financial but are also personal and human, and I think thatis a very, very good point.

I might add that if the INS was doing a better job at the rootcause, making sure that illegal aliens were not coming into thecountry, you would not face such problems with criminal aliens.

CALLAGHAN. We don't want the drug trade here. We don't

wantto continue

tobe a market.

Mr. SMITH. What is happening unfortunately in Salt Lake, weare seeing occur across the country, which is that illegal aliens and

drug-traffickers are no longer a border State problem.I am from Texas. We used to think it was a regional problem,

an isolated problem. But we are now getting reports from Utah orArkansas or Georgia, we are getting more and more reports thatcriminal activity is being conducted by illegal aliens.

Across the entire United States, about one-quarter of all Federal

prisoners today are now illegal aliens.

If you want to do something immediately about the crime ratesin America, if you want to do something about the crime rate inSalt Lake County, there is a very easy answer. And that is keeping

track of who is coming into the country, why they are coming in,

and how long they are going to be here. And doing a better job ofgetting to the root of the problem, by not allowing these individuals

to come into the country to begin with.But one-quarter of our crime problem in this country today is di-

rectly connected to illegal immigration problems.



Sheriff, in response to Congressman Cannon's questions, youmentioned some astounding figures that ought to catch everybody'sattention. In the city, 80 percent of the felony drug arrests are ar-rests of criminal aliens; is that right?

Mr. KENNARD. That is correct. Eighty percent of those arrested

in Salt Lake City total around 80 percent. And throughout the en-tire county, it averages around 50, 56 percent.

Mr. SMITH. What would be your estimate of the percentage of thetotal population that are illegal aliens, in the county or the city?

Mr. KENNARD. Probably 10 percent.Mr. SMITH. Ten percent are illegal aliens?Mr. KENNARD. Or less-of the total population?Mr. SMITH. Yes.

Mr. KENNARD. Oh, I am sorry. That would be-we are looking atunder 1 percent.

Mr. SMITHI. Under 1 percent of the population is committing 50percent of the felony drug crimes in the county and 80 percent inthe city?

Mr. KENNARD. That is correct.Mr. SMITH. That shows you why we target those individuals,

stopping them from getting into the country, and, if they come hereand commit crimes, making sure they are apprehended and de-ported as quickly as possible.

The other astounding figure you mentioned was the recidivismrate, the percentage of people who, when released, go out and com-

mit other crimes. Did you say 70 to 80 percent?Mr. KENNARD. Yes, sir. I believe that is conservative. But the

documentation and statistics we generate out of the jail is that 75to 80 percent of these people reoffend and come back into the sys-

tem.Mr. SMITH. Now, once again, why is it you are being forced to

release these people back into the community?Mr. KENNARD. Well, we have no room for them. And if we have

to choose between a drug dealer and someone that has just commit-

ted an armed robbery and shot several people, one is an aggravated

felony and deals with a property crime versus a crime against aperson. We have to choose which is the biggest threat to society.

Mr. SMITH. And the solution, obviously, is to either not havethose individuals here at all, or, if they do find a way to get here,to put them in jail or detain them in some way.

Now you all are adding to the current jail size, and then you arealso building this new detention facility out by the airport; is thatwhat you said?

Mr. KENNARD. We are not building. We are asking you, the Fed-eral Government and the INS in a partnership-

Mr. SMITH. That is what you would like to see?Mr. KENNARD.-to have a holding facility so that rather than re-

lease these people-and they may go out and reoffend in eitherselling drugs. Or it may escalate and they may get involved in an

aggravated shoot-out or something in this nature where we do keep

them. Now they are a big part of our expense. So we are askingFederal Government to look at that seriously.

Mr. SMITH. I think that is part of our job, to help you with your

solutions. I think you are pointing to exactly the right solution.



Mr. Thank you.Mr. SMITH. Let me see if the Congressman has any more ques-

tions.Mr. CANNON. I have a million questions, but given the timeMr. SMITH. We thank you both for your testimony, and, again,

fo r the tour of the jail earlier.Mr. SMITH. We will go to our second panel:Mr. David J. Schwendiman, United States Attorney, District of

Utah, U.S. Department of Justice; and Mr. Mark Reed, RegionalDirector, Immigration and Naturalization Service, accompanied byMr. Michael Comfort, Acting District Director, Denver District Of-fice, INS, and Mr. Meryl Rogers, Officer in Charge, Salt Lake CitySuboffice, INS. We welcome you all and look forward to hearingyour testimony.

We will begin with Mr. Schwendiman.

DEPARTMENT OF DISTRICT OF

Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to be here. I am sorry that it

comes at a time of national grief. As the chief law enforcement offi-cer, Federal law enforcement officer of the District, I ask that youtake our condolences and convey our pride to the families of thosefolks when you go to the memorial ceremony tomorrow.

The goal of the Utah Federal Immigration Prosecution Project is

to bring Federal resources to bear on the part of the crime problemin Utah that can be traced to those who come to the United Statesillegally, commit serious crimes, are convicted and deported as a re-sult, and then come to Utah and continue criminal careers thatthreaten public safety.

The project that we have been working on was conceived as away to interrupt the illegal reentry cycle that seems, at least, tobe the norm for illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes herelocally. Prosecuting qualified offenders for violations of 8 U.S.C.1326(b) and enhancing their sentences by the use of 8 U.S.C.

1326(b)(2), the aggravated felon reentry provision, exposes thesefolks to up to 20 years in Federal prison. Successful prosecutionseliminate them as recurring threats to public safety whether inUtah or elsewhere. Once these folks are in Federal prison, they areno longer a burden on our overtaxed jails and prison.

Mark Vincent, whom the congressman knows, set up our projecthere in the district in September 1996. His work that year resultedin the indictment of 80 aggravated felon reentry cases. There is achart here on my left, which you have a copy of in the testimony,that illustrates the numbers that we are talking about.

Through September 1997, Mark indicted 115 additional such de-fendants. As a result of the June 1997 Crime Summit, hosted bySenator Hatch, the District of Utah was able to hire three addi-

tional Assistant United States attorneys, albeit for limited 14-month terms, to help Mark with the project. Elise Becker, HenriSisneros, and Michele Mladejovsky started work at different timeslast year, but all were on board by March of this year.

From October 1997 through the end of last year, Mark and Eliseindicted 79 defendants fo r a total of 194 in 1997. With all four at-



20

torneys working full time on the project in 1998, as of last Wednes-

day we had charged 201 defendants just this year. That brings thetotal since the inception of this project to 484 aggravated felon re-

entry prosecutions that we have done since we started this in Sep-

tember 1996. We estimate that we will do close to 400 of thesecases before the end of the calendar year.

The average sentence in these cases is 60 months. Most of the

484 defendants we have done to date were found in the Utah State

Prison and in Aaron Kennard's jail, and they were found thereafter they were convicted and sentenced for local crimes.

The number of defendants we have prosecuted is low in relation

to the number of possible defendants who have been or who arenow in State and local custody. The volume we are doing is a win-

dow on the breadth of the problem, but an examination of a case

or two, a specific case or two will give you an idea of how seriousthe problem really is.

I want you to keel) in mind that these are not people who came

to Utah to make a better life for themselves or their families byworking menial and tough jobs in agriculture or in the tourist

trade or in whatever. These arehi-rd-6if-d,violent, dangerous crimi-

nals who are as great a threat to the legal immigrant as they are

to you and I.The first case involves a 36-year-old man who was sentenced this

last July 1st. As an aggravated felon, he received a Federal sen-

tence of 115 months. His long criminal history in the United Statesincludes local convictions in California for possession of stolen

property, battery on a police officer, driving under the influence, re-

sisting arrest, hit-and-run resulting in death and manslaughter. He

was convicted in Arizona for illegally reentering the country. He

was deported to Mexico twice, once from California and again from

Arizona. He has two driving-under-the-influence arrests and areckless driving charge in Utah. He became part of our project

when he came to our attention while serving a 180-day sentence

in the Salt Lake County jail for driving under the influence.

The second case: in May this year another man received an 84-month Federal sentence for aggravated felon reentry. Ile was first

deported to Mexico from California on January 27, 1995, after serv-

ing a 4,year California prison term for narcotics trafficking. In

April 1995 he was convicted in Federal court in California and

served a 24-month sentence for entering the country illegally. He

was deported to Mexico from California on January 22, 1997.

His criminal record in California includes numerous convictions

for narcotics trafficking. But of greatest interest, at least to me, isthat almost a year to the day after he was deported in 1997, this

defendant was arrested in Salt Lake City selling a twist of heroin

to an undercover narcotics officer near Pioneer Park. I don't know

whether you went to Pioneer Park this morning, if you did youknow what the problems are there. This man came to our attention

a few days later while he was in the Salt Lake County jail serving

an 80-day sentence on that offense.

These are not the worst, nor are they the least serious offenders.

They are simply typical of the defendants we are prosecuting. They

demonstrate the dangers these people pose to the community. They

also illustrate why it is important to break the reentry cycle by



identifying these people, prosecuting them, and putting them awayunder circumstances that make it impossible for them to be a prob-lem here or elsewhere.

One of the interesting things we do in our program is we ask thedefendants that will talk to us why they came to Utah. What wehear from the few of those that will talk suggests that many of ourdefendants came to Utah with the idea that law enforcement isoverwhelmed the immigration problem and has neither the will

nor the resources to be much of a threat.Even though almost all of our defendants are Mexican nationals,

we have not singled out an ethnic or national group or people ofone. nationality for special treatment. That has not been the focus

of this project. The thrust of the project has been simply to ensurepublic safety identifying, prosecuting, and locking away thosewho pose the most significant and most serious threat to peace andwell-being in this community. have gone to leaders in the Mexi-

can and Mexican-American communities to explain the program,

field questions about what we are trying to do, and to calm thefears of citizens and legal immigrants that they will be unfairly ormistakenly caught up in our project.

I speak regularly with the Mexican Consul, Ms. Anacelia Perezde Meyer. am proud to report that the district has received un-qualified support from Ms. Meyer and from others with respect tothis particular program, the Aggravated Felon Prosecution Reentry

Prosecution Project. So far, the project is a success, but there areseveral things that need to happen in order for us to continue todo what ve have done with success up to now.

First, we must be able to keep the four attorneys that ve have,make them permanent rather than just temporary.

Secondly, the IDENT system of fingerprint identification success-fully used by the Service in other locations to rapidly determine

alien status and immigration history, must be installed at as manystrategic points as we can find in the Utah criminal justice system

to allow the early and accurate identification of potential aggra-

vated felon reentry defendants. The expanded use of IDENT, I be-lieve, will eliminate the problems, delays, and missed opportunities

caused by suspects who give false identities when they enter thesystem.

Third, the memorandum of understanding between local law en-

forcement and the Service must be acted upon quickly so that offi-cers can be carefully selected, properly trained and then rapidly de-

ployed to assist the Service in identifying criminal aliens.

As an adjunct to the aggravated felon reentry project, I agree

that it is essential that the Service continue to process through de-

portation convicted felons and aggravated felons who are not eligi-

ble right now for prosecution as aggravated felon reentries.

Next, there must be support for contracting for and building ad-

ditional jail space in the district, both to house defendants being

prosecuted federally and for keeping those the Service must detainin order to process them for deportation. Nearly all of the Federaldetainees now awaiting trial, sentencing or designation in the jailsin use in this district, and those include Salt Lake County, Davis

County, Tooele County and Wasatch County and also include Ban-



nock County and Bingham County in Idaho, are in those jails be-

cause of the Utah Federal Immigration Prosecution Project.

Imaginative management of the problem by Randy Anderson and

his people at the U.S. Marshal's Office has helped relieve the pres-

sure on any one particular jail, but it cannot succeed over time inthe fa.ce of the increased pressure that will result from more and

more defendants being held and fed into the system by our project.

And these are people for whom release is no alternative. You can-

not release these people and hope to get them back to prosecute.

The jail space issue, I hasten to say, is not a purely Federal prob-

lem. The Federal need for jail space is a direct result of what the

Service and the United States Attorneys Office are doing to help

the community address a very serious public safety issue. We need

local and national understanding, support and assistance to be able

to continue that effort.The Service must continue to provide the enforcement agents

necessary to fully implement our project as it was envisioned last

year. You mentioned, I believe, the interior enforcement strategythat is being drafted by the Service. Well, the draft that I have

seen encourages coordination with the United States attorneys to

build a "national prosecution program for criminal alien reentryafter removal." In Utah, the program is already in place. The best

way to achieve the Service's goals and objectives for interior en-

forcement in Utah is to fully staff and support the district's Federal

immigration prosecution project.Finally, a defendant who was recently interviewed told us that

he came to Utah because he was told by people in Mexico thatthings were tougher in Utah now, but if he laid low for a year hecould come here without worry. He was told that the authorities inUtah would eventually give up. The whole project would die in ayear, they said. Well, I don't want that prediction to come true, and

I need your help and local help in order to make that not cometrue.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Schwendiman follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DAVID SCHWENDIMAN, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY,

DISTRICT OF UTAH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The goal of the Utah Federal Immigration Prosecution Project (FIPP) is to bring

federal resources to bear on the part of the crime problem in Utah that can betraced to those who come to the United States illegally, commit serious crimes, are

convicted and deported as a result, then come to Utah and continue criminal careers

that threaten public safety.The project was conceived as a way to interrupt the illegal reentry cycle that

seems, at least, to be the norm for illegal immigrants convicted locally of serious

offenses. Prosecuting qualified offenders for violations of 8 U.S.C. §1326(b) and en-

hancing their sentences by applying 8 U.S.C. §1326(bX2), the aggravated felon re-entry provision, exposes them to up to twenty years in federal prison. Successful

prosecutions eliminate them as recurring threats to public safety whether in Utah

or elsewhere. Once they are in federal prison they are no longer a burden on ou rovertaxed local jails andprisons.

Mark Vincent set up the project in September 1996. His work that year resulted

in the indictment of 80 aggravated felon reentry cases. Through September

Mark indicted 115 additional such defendants. As a result of the June 1997 Crime

Summit hosted by Senator Hatch, the District of Utah was able to hire three addi-

tional Assistant United States Attorneys, albeit for temporary fourteen month

terms, to help Mark with the project. Elise Becker, Henri Sisneros, and Michele

Mladejovsky started work at different times in late 1997 and early 1998, but all



were on board by March this year. From October 1997 through the end of last year,Mark and Elise indicted 79 defendants, for a total of 194 in 1997. With all four at-torneys working full- time on the project in 1998, as of last Wednesday we hadcharged 201 defendants this year, bringing the total number since the inception ofthe program to 484. We will do close to 400 cases this year alone. The average sen-tence is 60 months.

Most of the 484 defendants we have done to date were found in the Utah StatePrison and in the Salt Lake County Jail after they were convicted and sentencedfor state offenses.

The number of defendants who have been prosecuted is low in relation to thenumber of possible defendants who have been or who are now in state and local cus-

tody.The volume we are doing is a window on the breadth of the problem, but a look

at a specific case or two will give you a better feel for how seri,L s the problem is.Keep in mind that these defendants are not people who came to Utah to make abetter life for themselves or their families by working tough, menial jobs in the serv-ice, agricultural and tourist industries, although they may have followed or traveledto Utah with those who did. Instead, they are hardened, violent, dangerous crimi-nals who are as great a threat to the hardworking, legal inunigrant as they are toyou and me.

* The first case involves a year old man who was sentenced on July Asan aggravated felon he received a federal sentence of months. His longcriminal history in the United States includes local convictions in Californiafor possession of stolen property, battery on a police officer, driving under theinfluence, resisting arrest, hit and run resulting in death, and manslaughter.He was convicted in Arizona for illegally reentering the country. He wasported to Mexico twice; once from California and again from Arizona. Ie hastwo driving under the influence arrests and a reckless driving charge in Utah.He became part of the project when he came to our attention while serving

a day sentence in the Salt Lake County Jail for driving under the influ-ence.

* In May this year, another man received an 84 month federal sentence for ag-gravated felon reentry. He was first deported to Mexico from California onJanuary after serving a four year California prison term for narcot-ics trafficking. In April he was convicted in federal court in Californiaand served a twenty-four month sentence for entering the country illegally.He was deported to Mexico from California on January 22, His criminalrecord in California includes numerous narcotics convictions. greatest in-terest, however, is that almost a year to the day after he was deported in

this defendant was arrested in Salt Lake City selling a twist of herointo an undercover narcotics officer near Pioneer Park. He came to our atten-tion a few days later while he was in the Salt Lake County Jail serving an

day sentence on that offense.

These are not the worst, nor are they the least serious offenders. They are simplytypical of the defendants we are prosecuting. They demonstrate the dangers thesepeople pose for the community. They illustrate why it is important to break the re-entry cycle identifying them, prosecuting them and putting them away.

We ask the defendants who will talk to us why they came to Utah. What we hearsuggests many of our defendants came to Utah with the idea that law enforcementis overwhelmed the immigration problem and has neither the will nor the re-sources to be much of a threat to them.

Even though almost all of our defendants are Mexican nationals, we have not sin-

gled out an ethnic or racial group or people of one nationality for special treatment.The thrust of the project has always been simply to ensure public safety by identify-ing, prosecuting and locking away those who pose the most significant threat to thepace and well-being of this community. I have gone to leaders in the Mexican andMexican-American communities to explain the program, field questions about whatwe are trying to do, and to calm the fears of citizens and legal immigrants that theywill be unfairly or mistakenly caught up in our project or harassed as a result. Ispeak regularly with the Mexican Consul, Ms. Anacelia Perez de Meyer. I am proudto report that the District has received unqualified support for the project fromthese groups and their representatives.

So far, the project is a success. In order to sustain what we've started, however,several things must occur.



We must be able to convert our Special Assistant United States Attorney andour three temporary Assistant United States Attorneys to permanent posi-tions.

* The system of fingerprint identification successfully used the Serv-ice in other locations to quickly determine alien status and immigration his-tory must be installed at as many strategic points in Utah as possi to allowthe early and accurate identification of potential aggravated reentry de-fendants who are in the state criminal justice system. The expanded use of

will eliminate the problems, delays and missed opportunities causedsuspects who give false identities when they enter the system.

The Memorandum of Understanding between local law enforcement and theSenice must be acted upon quickly so that officers can be carefully selected,properly trained and then rapidly deployed to assist the Service in identifyingcriminal aliens, aggravated felons and candidates for prosecution as aggra-vated felon reentries.

As an adjtmct to the project it is essential that the Service continue to processfor deportation convicted felons and aggravated felons who are not eligible forprosecution as aggravated felon reentries.

There must be support for contracting for and building additional jail space

in the District, to house defendants being prosecuted federallykeeping those the Service must detain in order to process them for deporta-tion. Nearly all of the federal detainees now awaiting trial, sentencing or des-ignation in the jails in use the District, including those in Salt Lake Coun-ty, Davis County, Tooele County, and Wasatch County, and in Bannock Coun-ty and the Bingham County in Idaho, are there because of the District's fed-eral immigration prosecution project. Imaginative management of the prob-lem created the limited space available to house federal detainees is work-ing, but it cannot succeed over time in the face of the increased pressure thatwill result from more and more defendants being fed into the system theproject, people for whom release is not an alternative. The jail space issue isnot a purely federal problem. The federal need for space is a direct resultof what the Service and the United States Attorneys Office are doing to help

the community address a very serious public safety issue. need local andnational understanding, support and assistance to be able to continue that ef-fort.

* The Service must provide the enforcement agents necessary to fully imple-ment the project as it was envisioned at the time of the Crime Summit. TheInterior Enforcement Strategy drafted by the Service encourages coordinationwith United States Attorneys to build a "national prosecution program forcriminal alien reentry after removal." In Utah, the program is already inplace. The best way to achieve the Service's goals and objectives for interiorenforcement in Utah is to fully staff and support the District's federal immi-gration prosecution project.

A defendant who was recently interviewed told us he came to Utah because hewas told by people in Mexico that things were tougher in Utah, but if he laid lowfor a year he could come here without worry. He was told the authorities in Utahwould eventually give up. The whole project would die in a year, they said. I don'twant that prediction to come true. We need your help if that is to be kept from hap-pening.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Mr. Reed.

STATEMENT OF REED, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, DALLAS,IMMIGRATION NATURALIZATION SERVICE

Mr. REED. Mr. Chairman, thank you for having me here today.

It is a privilege and an honor. I have a written statement that Iwould like to submit for the ecord.

Mr. SMITH. Without an objection, we will make that a part of the

Mr. REED. would like to hit some of the high points on it. Fromall the dialogue we have had this morning, I am not going to devi-ate from the statement, but try to address only a couple of theissues from the important parts of the discussion.



Just so you know who is sitting at the table, I am the regionaldirector for the Immigration Service. have operational responsibil-ities for field offices in States to include both the Border Patroland interior stations.

Mike Comfort is our acting district director in Denver, who is re-sponsible for not only Denver but Salt Lake City. He has oper-ational responsibilities for Utah and Colorado.

Meryl Rogers is the here in Salt Lake City, who has beendetailed into the region to help us work out some of these veryissues that we are talking about today.

I would like to take a moment and frame some of the issues here,if I may, in terms of what is happening. I am here to talk aboutcriminal aliens. Before I do so, would like to build up to the issue.

We have a threat that has corridors going into the interior of theUnited States of America that have been in place fo r decades. Ithas taken us a long time to build the mess we have today. It isgoing to take us a while to get out of it.

Most of the people that are passing through this community arepeople destined to work sites. The great majority of these peopleare-except for the fact that they have violated our immigrationlaws-are here to find work. They are not criminal aliens.

There is such a huge population of undocumented aliens in theUnited States now that even when a small percentage engage incriminal conduct, it becomes intolerable.

We are very busy at the border doing one part of an overall strat-egy. We have found what does not work is to pepper scarce re-

sources throughout a broad regional area. That has no impact. Wecan show from past experience that that does not work.

We are attempting to gain control of certain parts of our borderin a very measured way, and then grow off of that, and then goon and deny another area of terrain.

We are not making any representations to anybody that we arestopping the flow of undocumented workers in the United States ofAmerica. We are telling you that in time we are going to have aborder that has the proper resources and integrity to become a sig-nificant deterrent to that.

And that has come about, Mr. Chairman, much through yourguidance, as well as the interior enforcement strategy whereare now going.

We need to establish removal corridors in this United States. Thealien smugglers have smuggling corridors that have been set up fordecades.

There are networks in place to smuggle people from any partalong the Mexican border to any place in the United States. It isan extensive network that has been in place f3r a long, long time.We need to work on destroying those networks.

At the same time, we need to start setting up removal corridorsthat we can use when we detect people unlawfully in the country,we can get them out of the country as expeditiously as possible.

This is a community problem. This is something that has hap-pened to our nation over time. It has to do with messages. Themessages to Mexico and the other countries that seem to be in thelimelight right now is "it is okay to come to the United States." "Itis okay to seek work in the United States." "It is okay to be here."



26

And these people are really confused, if you will sit down andtalk to them, they ask "what the heck is going on here." "Do youwant me here or don't you want me here?" The employer says,

"yes"; the Immigration Service says, "no."

We need to work on this in the community to help sort out thatmessage so we are speaking of the same tongue, federally, locally,and from the State levels.

This is national in scope. realize that communities tend to reactto what is going on within their communities, but I would ask us

not to look at this as just an isolated area in small communities.this stuff is integrated and interrelated to other schemes that

we need to come up with a viable interior immigration strategy.In terms of criminal aliens, which is really-I agree with this

committee and I agree with the people of the community-ournumber one priority. The sheriff has spoken with great wisdom this

morning. endorse virtually everything that he has said, and it isreally the backbone of where we are trying to go.Before came to this post in Dallas, I was a district director in

San Diego. And, in had the occasion of having the Attorney

General come and visit us. pulled in all the law enforcementleaders in the community as well as the Federal issue agencies,

and she left us with this-and this is the Immigration Services in-terior enforcement strategy as it relates to criminal aliens.

Let me quote her: "My dream is to develop a link with State and

local authorities at jails and police departments across the country

so that recognize as the are coming into the system whattheir status is and that we take appropriate steps. There are going

to be some people that we want to imprison and some that we want

to deport immediately. It is important that we develop a partner-ship with State and local authorities to undertake that from the be-

ginning."I think you heard the sheriff say something very similar to that.

Our strategy for criminal aliens is fourfold, basically. We are in theprocess of trying to develop that and the infrastructure built be-

hind that as we speak. We have been working on this for the last

months.Our first goal in the central region, to include all 18 States, is

to identify every alien that is arrested by a State and local author-ity in the entire region at the time of arrest. Once we have identi-fied that individual, it is imperative that engage in a conversa-

tion with the local and State authorities to arrange for some pros-

ecution strategy.Does that person get prosecuted by the district attorney and/or

does that person get prosecuted by the U.S. attorney? Or would itbe better from an overall perspective, as the sheriff spoke of a cou-

ple of times, to simply get that person removed from the United

States and set that person up for a felony criminal prosecution

should they reenter the United States?

Great thought process. He is right on the button. And then wehave to get them removed expeditiously.

Those are really process issues. Those are processes of identify-ing people, getting them apprehended, putting them in the right

system and getting them out of the United States.



27

But, again, going back again to what the sheriff spoke of, themeasurement of success in this is, are they going to come back tothe community?

That is where the community engages. That is when the commu-nity goes out and says, you come back into this community, youare a felon just by being in this community and you will be ar-

rested. There is a certainty of your arrest if you come back to thiscommunity. You will be arrested and the United States attorneywill prosecute you as a felon. You will be incarcerated and you willbe removed again."

The enforcement will continue to mount. We do not have to waitfor them to be a recidivist. All we have to do is wait fo r them tocome back into the community. The message needs to be strong. Itwill not be tolerated in these given communities.

Between the partnerships with the local, State police depart-ments, between the District Attorney and U.S. attorney and the

Federal Government, we can send a very, very strong message andwe can deal with this criminal alien problem.

There is a lot of infrastructure that goes behind that. And, again,as the commissioner points out, detention and the capability-thecapacity to actually detain these people and move them throughthe system is a heck of a challenge, but it is doable. It is especiallydoable if we have the communities buying into this--delegation ofauthority.

If we have got local law enforcement agencies that are willing totransport people to locations where we can set up hub sites, where

we can build infrastructures around to arrange for formal removalout of the United States, we can do this. We cannot do it alone.

There are only about-and these are approximations-just forpurposes of trying to look at this thing from a large perspective, weonly have about 2,000 special agents in the United States. That in-cludes some assigned to the border dealing with smuggling oper-ations.

We have responsibilities outside of criminal aliens. Althoughcriminal aliens is number one, we still have smugglers, we stillhave fraud. We still have some more enforcement issues we need

to take care of.We estimate that we have around five million people in the

United States. We can't go get them all. We cannot do it. Even ifwe tried to station an immigration officer in every county jaildays a week 24 hours a day, we don't have enough people. We can-not do that.

Just for Utah, we estimate that it would take nearly 200 specialagents to a special agent in every one of your county jailsdays a week 24 hours a day. We can't do it.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Reed follows:]

OF REGIONAL

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank for inviting me tospeak today. I am the Regional Director for the Central and have oper-ational responsibility for all activities states, including Utah, which ispart of the Denver District. am here to address the of criminal aliensin the state of Utah, and more importantly, steps we have taken and will take tomeet those problems.



As you are well aware, the presence of criminal aliens seriously erodes the quality

life in American cities. Drug trafficking, the production and sale of fraudulent

documents and ien smuggling are just some the enterprises our cities can dowithout. know Fdon't have to convince you that criminal aliens are a serious prob-

lem in Utah.These are the responsibilities of the as see them, concerning criminal aliens

in Utah:

First: apprehension and identification. The challenge is to find and arrestcriminal aliens in the community or passing through the state, as well asidentify those already in the criminal justice system.

Second: detention. There must be a secure place to hold criminals while due

process takes place and while transportation is arranged.

Third: removal. There must be an effective system for placing criminals out-

side the boundaries of our country.

Finally, deterrence. Once removed, criminals must have a strong aversion to

returning to our communities.The Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Doris Meiss-

ner, has made the removal of criminal aliens, particularly those who have been con-victed of an aggravated felony, a high priority.

Nationally, the number of criminal aliens the removes has increased dramati-cally in the past few years. In the first six months of this fiscal year, crimi-

nal aliens were removed from the up 12 percent from the same time last fiscal

year.Allow me to review the steps the has taken in the past to address the crimi-

nal alien issue in Utah, and outline additional steps we plan for the future.

First let's look at the apprehension of criminal aliens the Salt Lake City

office. By "apprehensions' mean those aliens who were directly arrested

as well as those who were turned over to the the criminal justice system

and other agencies. In fiscal year the Salt Lake City office apprehended

564 criminal aliens. In fiscal year the total was During the first ninemonths of fiscal year 924 criminal aliens have been taken into custody. At the

current pace, the office here will likely exceed 1,200 apprehensions this fiscal year.

In March the entire state of Utah was given access to Law Enforcement

Support Center Over hours of training were conducted statewide for

Utah enforcement personnel. The now gives them immediate access to

information on foreign-born individuals under investigation or arrest.The is a member of the city's Pioneer Park Drug Task Force. An bike

patrol agent works closely with other law enforcement agencies to apprehend illegal

aliens-many of whom are criminals-in Salt Lake City. I understand that the work

of the task force has led to a reduction of criminal activity in Pioneer Park, and

that the task force is now attacking similar problems in other areas of the city.

Our agents also work inside the state prison in Draper, Utah,to identify and

track aliens who have been arrested for crimes. The agents place "detainers" on the

aliens so that the takes them into custody when they are released. Other incar-

ceration facilities around the state frequently notify the about aliens they en-

counter. Resource limitations do not allow us to respond to all requests to pick up

aliens. We do, however, give particular attention to calls involving criminals.

In addition, our agents work throughout the state with other local, county, state

and federal law enforcement officials on specific operations that involve aliens or im-

migration law violations. For example, we are developing plans that will increase

our effectiveness in apprehending criminal aliens.

Law enforcement agencies in St. George and Cedar City, Utah, have requested a

greater INS presence in the southern part of the state. The Denver District and

the Havre, Montana, Border Patrol Sector have worked to address the issue of large

numbers of illegal aliens being smuggled through the area. These joint road inter-diction operations have resulted in the apprehension of large numbers of illegal

aliens.The INS will continue to conduct periodic road and worksite operations, and will

consider temporarily stationing special agents in southern Utah to ensure that all

criminal aliens in jails are identified and removed.

We are excited about the upcoming arrival of video conferencing between INS and

area jails as a way of identifying, processing, and removing criminal aliens much

more effectively. The interviews will be done remotely, using computer and video

equipment provided by the INS. Not only will we be ale to identify a higher num-



ber of criminals, our agents will spend less time traveling around the state inter-viewing inmates, and will spend more time on other enforcement activities. Videoconferencing has already proved to be very successful in other areas of the country.

We hope to enroll Washington County Jail near St. George and Utah County Jailin Provo in the initial phase of video conferencing. The new Salt Lake County Jailis scheduled to be completed during the summer of 1999. Once built, we expect toinstall video conferencing there in cooperation with the Salt Lake County Sheriffs

Department.INS will work with southern Utah law enforcement agencies to implement videoconferencing in jails and prisons there.

After apprehending criminal aliens, the issue becomes detention. view is thatdetention should be as brief and as limited as possible, as resources are better spentin other areas of the removal process. Still, as you know, detention space is a con-tinuing challenge to the Salt Lake City INS office, though the situation has im-proved over the past year.

Currently, the INS has up to 45 detention beds available, scattered along theWasatch front area. These spaces depend on inmate levels at the various facilities.

Because of the shortage of local bedspace, the INS is compelled to look throughoutthe state for other options. We are currently using the Wackenhut facility in Aurora,Colorado, to house detainees until more beds become available. There is potentialfor additional detention space in the region, however.

Davis County is building a jail facility; when it is completed in December of thisyear, we will have 40 additional beds available to house our detainees.

The Washington County Purgatory Detention Center in Hurricane, Utah, hasbeen suggested as a detention site. The facility is 300 miles from Salt Lake City,however, a distance that renders it too far to use as detention space.

The possibility of building a 150-bed "Temporary Overnight Staging Facility" forthe in Salt Lake City area is currently under analysis by the of Engi-neers. Their report is expected sometime next month. It will consider building andoperating costs, whether our workload will support such a facility, transportation

needs, staffing requirements, INS priorities, and alternatives. We will review the re-sults of the study when it is finished and make a detc. on the facility then.

Removing criminal aliens is the next consideration. The Justice Prisoner andAlien Transportation System (JPATS), a federal prisoner aircraft transport serviceunder the management of the U.S. Marshals Service, has been and will continueto remove aliens from Utah. In addition, ground transportation is used to movealiens from the Salt Lake City area to other INS facilities, or remove them fromthe country.

Within the past year, the Utah INS office has received four new maxi-vans andone new bus to assist in the transportation and removal of aliens. The local system

for alien removal typically functions well for the current needs of the Utah INS.

The final step in the criminal alien removal system is deterrence. Without mean-ingful deterrence, criminals will re-establish themselves in our communities. Newlaws, along with greater cooperation among U.S. enforcement entities, have giventeeth to the concept of deterrence. The Salt Lake City office has received outstand-ing support from Acting U.S. Attorney David Schwendiman in the form of prosecut-ing aggravated felons who re-enter the U.S. after removal. We expect to continuethe same fine working relationship with U.S. Attorney designate Paul Warner.Aliens successfully prosecuted serve their time in federal prisons, relieving Utah ofthe jail space burden.

During fiscal year the U.S. Attorney's office criminally prosecuted 80 aliensfor re-entiy. In fiscal year the office prosecuted aliens who re-entered.Through July 22 of this fiscal year, have been prosecuted. That's a 18 4 per centincrease so far, with more than two months remaining in the fiscal year.

The state of Utah faces some real immigration challenges. We undoubtedly havea distance to go in addressing them, but I'd like to note some areas of progress,made possible through the work and cooperation of Congress, the Administration,



the Department of Justice, local elected officials and law enforcement authorities,and of course, the local staff.

The and the Salt Lake City Police Department will officially sign a memoran-of understanding next month that will initiate a ground-breaking pilot project

that will delegate authority to the local to perform certain immigration officerfunctions. The immigration law passed in i996 cleared the way for this concept, andthe Attorney General designated Salt Lake City as the testing ground. This author-

ity should be another effective tool to keep criminal aliens off the streets.Earlier this year, Utah was put on-line with the Law Enforcement Support Center

which provides local and state law enforcement agencies with access toindices for the purpose of identifying criminal aliens for removal from the

Shortly after last year's crime summit here in Utah, the city began getting weeklyflights the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System These

flights have been an enormous help in moving criminals out of the state quickly.

Several vehicles were added to the local fleet to aid in the removal of aliens.Last fall the office received four large vans that hold persons each, and recently

a bus with a 51-person capacity was acquired.Three additional federal prosecutors were assigned to the Attorney's office to

handle narcotics-related matters.

Three additional enforcement agents were added to the Salt Lake Cityoffice during the past year. Since 1994, the office has grown positions.

While on the subject, like to give you an update on the local vacancy situ-

ation. The Salt Lake City Suboffice has a total of 48 positions. Currently, two ofthose positions are vacant, though we are aggressively working to fill them.

* Deportation Branch: 14 positions; no vacancies. Two employees, a Deportation

Officer and a Docket Clerk, recently entered on duty. Two other recentlyhired employees are awaiting security clearances.

* Examinations Branch: positions; 2 vacancies.

* Investigations Branch: positions; no vacancies. criminal investigator re-

cently entered on duty.

For a few moments like to broaden the discussion to give you a glimpse ofwhat we are putting in place as a central region interior enforcement strategy.

There are cuTently three teams, made up of top central region INS managers,developing operational plans for what see as our primary interior enforcement tar-gets. They are: removing criminal aliens (2) shutting down smuggling corridors,and reducing the number of illegal aliens in the workplace.

Allow me to suramarize these target areas.

Aliens who commit crimes erode the quality of life in our communities. The INS

routinelyidentified criminal aliens in the state and federal criminal justice system,

but those who enter the system on a local or county level are frequently missed.Our goal is to set up a system to enable us to identify these criminal aliens for

the purpose of removal. Then, we will aggressively pursue and prosecute criminal

aliens who re-enter the after removal.24-hour Command Center is now being established in the Chicago office.

The Command Center will provide local and county jails with 24-hour access to

with the ability to remotely conduct record checks, interviews and processing.

The Law Enforcement Support Center will be able to refer cases to thecommand center if an alien appears amenable to removal the

In addition, the will expand the use of video conferencing equipment in localand county jails.

Smugglers use numerous interstate corridors to transport illegal aliens into the

interior of the In addition to the obvious problem of a rising illegal population,

the smugglers use vehicles that are often unsafe, endangering the lives of the aliens

and the general public.We will begin in Nebraska, deterring alien smugglers from using the stretch

of Interstate that crosses that state. developing state

and county law enforcement agencies along this while improving our re-

sponsiveness to their calls for assistance when they stop suspected smugglers, wewill force these criminals to use other routes.



Once smuggling on 1-80 in Nebraska has dried up and a maintenance system isin place, the concept will be systematically expanded to other and other cor-ridors.

The Command Center I mentioned earlier will also support our efforts to haltsmuggling. The Center will provide 24-hour telephonic support to law enforcementagencies in number of states who encounter suspected smuggling loads. This willenable to work with these agencies to determine the disposition of aliens and,

more importantly, to quickly identify criminal aliens for removal.

Employment continues to be the magnet that draws illegal aliens into the interiorthe United States. While we will continue to remove unauthorized workers from

the workplace, it has become clear that we must develop new strategies, especiallyfor industries that historically have attracted large numbers of illegal aliens.

chose meatpacking plants in the midwest as a starting point, since illegalaliens make up approximately percent of the industry's workforce. Communitiessurrounding meatpacking plants continue to experience problems that accompanythe illegal population, including crime and burdened social services.

goal is to reduce the number of unauthorized workers in the meat-packingindustry by providing industry managers with fast and frequent employment eligi-

bilitywill establish an "employment eligibility clearing house." INS will obtain cop-

of forms (employment eligibility verification) for employees of meat packingplants, which will forwarded to the clearing house location or locations. There,working in cooperation with other agencies, staff will verify employment eligibilityfor all employees.

The will generate a list for each plant, indicating which employees' work au-thorization checks out, and which need to be interviewed This process will

repeated on a frequent basis, "freezing out" unauthorized workers and enablingplant managers to stabilize their workforce.

In conclusion, want to thank you again for asking me to testify here today. Itis clear that we have met many challenges posed by criminal alien activity in Utah.It is also clear that we have some distance to go. I appreciate the work you andthe others in this room have put forth in looking for solutions. look forward tomeeting future challenges as partners. will now be happy to answer any questions

Mr. Can I ask a question?Mr. Thank you, Mr. Reed. We will recognize Congress-

man Cannon.Mr. REI. You can read my statement. There is actually a lot

more good information.Mr. CANNON. am actually concerned about the chairman, who

has plane to catch.Do you have statements you need to make?Mr. COMFORT. No.

Mr. CANNON. So you are here to help us with the questions.This has been very enlightening. Let me just ask Mr.

Schwendiman a little bit about some distinctions here.Your pro ect deals with criminals-many of these very, very bad,

vicious and hard people--who have reentered. They have alreadybeen deported once.

Mr. SCIIWENDIMAN. That is right.

Mr. CANNON. You don't have a reentry case unless they havebeen deported. Would you distinguish between that kind of reentrycase and the deportation case, and the elements of the crimecharged, what you have to do to prove it.

Mr. SCHENDIMAN. Sure. Very simply, a person who reenters theUnited States after been convicted of a serious aggravatedfelony-and those are defined in the code--we have chosen tospeak about three: violent crime, serious property crime, and nar-



32

cotics offenses. But there is a host of those crimes that define anaggravated felony.

If a person is convicted of an aggravated felony, is deported,comes back to the United States, that person is an aggravated felonreentry, and we prosecute that person as an aggravated felon re-

entry.Now, if a person is simply convicted of a crime, not necessarilyone of the aggravated felonies-a misdemeanor, for example-andis deported subsequent to that because they were here illegally andthey come back, we would not necessarily have an aggravated felonreentry case.

Mr. Okay. But what does it take to deport a person whois here illegally?

Mr. In order to deport someone that is here ille-gally, you just have to prove they are not a citizen of the United

States, they are here without permission, without authority.Mr. How does burden of proof work? How much of theburden does the defendant have to show that he is

Mr. SCHWENDIMAN. I think Mark is probably in a better positionto tell you what it takes to get deported.

Mr. a person is deported once and reenters, what arethe penalties you have against them? What penalties are available?

Mr. SCHENDIMAN. A person who is deported and reenters, it de-pends on their status. But, generally, 2 years is the maximum pun-ishment they can receive for being prosecuted for reentering, sim-

ply reentering.Mr. CANNON. But if you have someone that has been deportedand comes back and back-not by your definition an aggravatedcriminal reentry-he is now just a reentry and he comes and com-mits some sort of felony, depending on what your resources are,then do you see that person?

Mr. SCHENDIMAN. No. We will see them if they have committedan aggravated felon reentry-if they are an aggravated felon re-entry, but we don't ordinarily see them under the other cir-cumstances. Now we have prosecuted cases where people have

come back after being deported, and have been caught in an actthat is dangerous to the community.

The person who threatened Judge Valdez was brought to our at-tention and we prosecuted that person for felony reentry. The per-son who was prosecuted is serving 18 months, I believe, on that of-fense.

Mr. CANNON. Mr. Reed, I suppose the burden comes down to-you talked about strategy of doing this. The resources required fora criminal-an aggravated criminal reentry prosecution-are prettyterrific, are they not? You want to do a total of about 400 over a3-year period?

Mr. REED. Actually, we will do probably 400 just this year. Wehave done 484 so far since September 1996.

Mr. CANNON. And that ties up four of your prosecutors?Mr. REED. Yes.Mr. CANNON. That is actually pretty good for those four.Mr. REED. Yes.Mr. CANNON. But still we have this much, much bigger problem.

The sheriff is talking about just deporting them on the assumption



that a deportation means an easier dealing with the people in thefuture. is going to happen in the mind of people who wantto come to America to commit crimes so they decide this is the-there are better ways to make a criminal life elsewhere?

Mr. We are already seeing this to some extent, aby-product of having done so many of people this way al-

ready. We are getter word back in some cases that this is a bitscarier place to come than they might have thought before.

have talked to the first assistant, Howard Slot, in Nevada, whohas been real interested in what we are doing. And they are goingto start doing what we are doing because they are seeing the samesort of numbers in their jails. What will happen is we will chasethem all from here and they will go someplace else unless we havegot an across-the-board strategy.

Mr. they are deported, they are amenable to criminalrosecution. That is part of the infrastructure we need to set up to

e sure that they can do that. I am speaking totally out of turnhere, but it is probably one of the more simple felony prosecutionsavailable.

Mr. Reentry?Mr. REED. Reentry. These people are felons. Some of them are

aggravated felons, some of them are just felons. But, nevertheless,it is a felony prosecution. What I would ask'you to think about iswhat is the cost if we don't do this? The numbers will continue to

The idea of this is to go in, change the message, set up a deter-

rent, and then criminals will understand you don't come to SaltLake City. If you do, you are going to be arrested. There is a cer-tainty of arrest, and they won't be there. The success is to not haveto prosecute, so it is going to take some time. It is not easily done,but it is a concept and I think it is a workable concept.

I have got to say one other thing. The sheriff hit right on it,again, this disruption stuff. We should not be confining our special

agents in jail. We should have them out on the street with thesheriff looking for people that shouldn't be there.

Mr. CANNON. There are a lot more questions.Mr. SMITH. Let me follow up on Congressman Cannon's questions

and your answers. You both mentioned in your testimony that, un-fortunately, many illegal aliens intend to commit crimes, and that,if they get to Salt Lake, they may or may not be prosecuted. If theyare prosecuted, they probably won't do time, they will probably bereleased.

We heard the sheriff say awhile ago that 75 to 80 percent arereleased. It doesn't take long, I would think, fo r the word to get outthere, that the odds are with you. And from the criminal's point ofview, the rewards outweigh the odds of being punished.

It seems to me that the first message fo r us to send goes to thatfirst chart, Mr. Schwendiman, that you put up there, which is thenumber of prosecutions increasing.

As Mr. Reed just said, when that word gets out there, you mightexpect the prosecutions to go down. That does not mean you arenot doing your job. In some sense, that might mean you are beingsuccessful, assuming there are fewer people to be prosecuted. So Ithink that is one good point and something for us to be aware of.



The other point, though, is that if all we are doing is either put-ting more criminal aliens in jail or sending them to somewhere elsein the country, we are really not doing our job, and you are nothelping our friends in the law enforcement business.

The root of the problem is still the border. And until we deterillegal aliens from even coming into the country, we are never real-

going to solve that problem.Mr. Reed, the INS across the board is only succeeding in deport-

ing less than half of all the criminal aliens who are apprehended.Why is that so low and how do we get it up?

Mr. REED. I can't validate your statistic there, but I do agreethat we are not-

Mr. SMITH. It is about a third that are being deported, I under-stand.

Mr. REED. So should have gone for the half.

Mr. SMITH. Take the half. How do we get it to 100 percent?Mr. REED. I think what we are talking about is doing these typesof things. We certainly have not been approaching this the rightway. Toe way we have been approaching this is very resource andmanpower intensive. We don't have the resources.

In many cases, we don't have the right relationship set up withState and local governments to allow this to happen. We don't havethe appropriate detention strategy in place.

Mr. SMITH. It is my understanding that the IN S deports 90,000to 100,000 people a year, most of whom are criminal aliens; is that

correct?REED. Yes, sir.

Mr. SMITH. Okay. And yet we conservatively estimate that wehave got about 300,000 people coming into the country illegallyeafyear; is that also correct?

REED. Yes. I will even take it a step farther than that. I willtell you what is happening to us because we don't have the appro-priate relationships set up in the communities. I used to work inSan Diego. I am going to have to insert some of this Californiastuff because I think it tells a good story.

In southern California, we have got a tremendous system set upto identify criminals in the state penal system and we get them re-moved. They are all aggravated felons. They are bad guys. Thesepeople are removed into Mexico.

These are individuals, for a great part, who came to the UnitedStates legally when they were young people. They have grown upin a world of crime. They are bad people. The only thing they knowis home back in the hood. They will go out the door through re-moval, but they will come back in claiming to be a U.S. citizen.

They ar' very difficult to detect because they speak English asyou and "I do. They went to school in the schools we went to. Theywere raised in the United States of America, and they are comingback home, back to their neighborhoods, and they are back commit-ting the crimes, which is probably just like the sheriff said.

We have not taken the next step. The next step is the deterrentstep. We have not got there yet because we have got our people injail. We are doing the first part of it better, identifying people, butwe have got to get our people away from that and let technology



help us with it. We have got to get our people out in the streetand-

Mr. SMITH. But the people you just described, gather, are herelegally; is that the case?

Mr. REED. No. Once they commit a crime, they are not.

Mr. SMITH. They are in legal status or illegal status? When yousay they grew up here, they went to school here, they were bornhere, I presume they are citizens.

Mr. REED. lot of these people started out with a lawful statusat some point in time, and at some subsequent point in time be-cause of their criminal activity, that lawful status is taken awayand they are now undocumented.

Mr. SMITH. I understand. So the problem is not just with illegalimmigrants, but also with legal immigrants in that case?

Mr. REED. In that case.Mr. SMITH. If we have people coming in per year ille-

gally, and they are augmented the group of individuals you justdescribed, and you are deporting or less, than it is gettingworse every year.

There are more and more people in the country illegally who arepotentially criminals and, overall, the system is not going to im -prove. It is going to worsen until we to the root causes.

Now you mentioned something I want to end on, and that is theword "resources." It is really not your fault or my fault, but it is

a frustration that I want to express.We all know that we need more resources, we all know we need

more Border Patrol agents or prosecutors or whatever it might be.is it that the administration refuses to request in their budget

sufficient financial resources to accomplish the goals that we allagree need to be accomplished?

Mr. REED. Mr. Chairman, can't answer that very well. I knowthat you have pushed us and challenged us on that issue repeat-edly. I am really so far down the

Mr. SMITH. That is what say. You and I don't make those deci-

sions, but it is a frustration. If everybody is talking about the samegoals and you hear the same words from the administration andfrom members of Congress, we certainly ought to get together onthe additional financial resources as well.

Mr. REED. W e should, Mr. Chairman. And to the administration'scredit, if we are going to go that way-we have been challengedvery much realizing that at my level that we are not going to getsome of these resources, to figure out a better way of doing busi-ness.

We cannot look at this the way we have been looking at this inthe past. have been with Congressmen from Nebraska, Iowa-Idon't want to go through it again. Everybody wants more agentsin more towns and more jails all over the place. Just to do Utah,if we were to do that, we would end up with a couple hundredagents just going in the jails-forget about the detention halls andall the other ones.

Mr. SMITH. am saying it would be nice if the administrationconverted its words into action, and we would get the money.



36

We are going to have to stop there. I am going to turn this overto Congressman Cannon and ask him if he will make some conclud-ing remarks.

Mr. CANNON. Thank you very much for your testimonies. Theseare difficult issues. We share some serious concerns-these are bi-

partisan, I might say, across the committee, about how resourcesare applied.The fact is, INS has been given a lot more funds recently, and

I think what you are saying, Mr. Reed, is the INS needs to applythose better and the use of technology better. We really need to dosomething and we need to do it soon.

This problem goes to the moral fiber of our community as youstart selling the new generation of drugs. It goes to the perceptionof American citizens about what constraints should be and wherethey can push. We need to retain that commitment to a society of

law and order. So we pledge to work with you.Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Cannon. I thank our witnesses onthe second panel. I thank everybody here for their interest in sucha crucial, important, and personal issue. And, with that, the Immi-gration Subcommittee will stand adjourned.

[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]

287(g) - hearing on problems related to criminal aliens in the state of utah (july 27, 1998)

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