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
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois,
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR.,
Wisconsin
BILL McCOLLUM, Florida
GEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania
HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina
LAMAR SMITH, Texas
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida
BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia
STEPHEN E. BUYER, Indiana
ED BRYANT, Tennessee
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
BOB BARR, Georgia
WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana
CHRIS CANNON, Utah
JAMES E. ROGAN, Califomia
MARY BONO, California
THE JUDICIARY
JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan
BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
RICK BOUCHER, Virginia
JERROLD NADLER, New York
ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia
MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina
ZOE LOFGREN, California
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
MAXINE WATERS, California
MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey

TihoAs E.

IMMIGRATION CLAIMS
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas,
ELTON GALLEGLY, California MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina
WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
CHRIS CANNON, Utah ZOE LOFGREN, California
BRYANT, Tennessee ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
E. ROGAN, California
MARY BONO, California

CoRiA A. STROM,
EDWARD R. GRANT,
 HEARING DATE

J u ly 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 ...................... 5
Cannon, Chris, a Representative in Congress from the State of Utah .............. 3
Kennard, Aaron, Sheriff, Salt Lake County 11
Reed, Mark, Regional Director, Central Region, Immigration and Naturaliza-
tion S erv ice 24
Schwendiman, 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: Prepared
state m en t
Cannon, Chris, a Representative in Congress from the State of Utah: Pre-
p ared statem en t 4
Kennard, Aaron, Sheriff, Salt Lake County: Prepared statement 12
Reed, Mark, Regional Director, Central Region, Immigration and Naturaliza-
tion Service: Prepared statem ent
Schwendiman, David United States Attorney, District of Utah, U.S. De-
partm ent of Justice: Prepared statem ent 22
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION
AND 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 the
House of Representatives will come to order.
I want to make some personal comments before we get into the
official opening statements.
First of all, let me say to Congressman Cannon's friends and sup-
porters and constituents and fellow law enforcement officials, that
he 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 serve
with him. It is certainly a pleasure to have him on the Immigration
Subcommittee as well.
I have been chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee now for
almost 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 he
comes 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 I
want you to hear about it and see it firsthand," I am going to be
there. And the fact that this is our first field hearing indicates not
only my high regard for Chris Cannon, but also the importance of
the 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 the
great pride he has, not only in his community, but also in his
church, I might add, if that is not mixing church and state too
much today.
And then, of course, he had to drive back home and then come
back 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 as
well 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, hear
their 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 ensure
public safety. Our Federal, State, and local governments have a
duty to work together to fight crime and keep our streets safe for
American families and American communities.
Congressman Cannon, my Immigration Subcommittee colleague,
has been a strong advocate for the people of Utah on public safety
issues and on many other issues as well. I am grateful that he has
invited 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 United
States with little fear of being apprehended or deported. There are
now more than five million illegal aliens within the United States,
with another quarter million arriving every year, and those are
very, very conservative figures.
Some of these illegal aliens are also habitual criminals, and
many, of course, are drug traffickers as well. They bring with them
a plague of violence, theft and drug addiction, and they impose a
harsh fiscal cost on local taxpayers who must foot the bill for new
jails and increased law enforcement.
Local government law enforcement officials work hard to cope
with this threat to public safety, but when they are faced with a
massive and continual onslaught of criminal illegal aliens, they can
easily become overwhelmed.
When there is not enough space in the jails and prisons, criminal
illegal aliens may have to be released. When the Immigration and
Naturalization Service does not apprehend and detain and deport
illegal aliens, they go right back into American communities where
they often commit additional crimes.
This is a vicious circle. When criminals believe they will not be
punished, they increase their criminal activity, which makes it
even 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 to
expect that when a criminal is arrested, the INS will help deter-
mine quickly if he or she is an illegal alien. If a 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 INS more money each year
for Border Patrol, interior enforcement, and detention facilities.
However, at the same time that resources have been increased, the
problems of illegal immigration have grown. It is not enough to in-
crease funding. The agency must also improve its management and
operations.
We look forward today to hearing the testimony of witnesses on
how the local, state, and Federal authorities can work together to
address the problems brought to Utah by criminal illegal aliens. I
hope 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 IN
FROM THE OF
Mr. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, fellow citi-
zens, I would like to thank you all for gathering here today in Utah
on 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 back
home, most people were pretty skeptical.
Then I presented these statistics, as reported in 1995, by the Salt
Lake County Board of Commissioners:
Twenty percent of illegal aliens migrating to Utah do so for
criminal activity-bringing drugs to sell or exchange for stolen
goods, 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 not
moving 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 of
every three illegal aliens that cross the border, only one is picked
up by the border guard.
As a result, Salt Lake City, at the crossroads of Interstate 15
which extends up from the south, and Interstate 80, which extends
east and west, has today become the new area of opportunity for
drug-trafficking, in particular, and illegal immigration, in general,
as these problems spread out from our border States and into our
interiorStates-like Utah.
Today, we will hear testimony from several witnesses who will
describe the illegal immigration situation in Utah and the ways in
which local, State and Federal representatives have come together
to 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 to
solve it, including:
Increasing personnel in and funding the offices located
in interior States to 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 processing of criminal aliens;
Making available to our interior States a program that has been
very successful in California that will place an INS agent actually
in jails in areas with high concentration of criminal aliens to iden-
tify and process them before arraignment and remove them as
quickly 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 include
language within both the House and Senate Commerce, Justice,
State and the Judiciary Appropriations bills for fiscal years
and to encourage the INS and Marshals Service to focus oil
the problem that many of the witnesses will talk about, that is, the
lack of detention space to hold criminal aliens.
This same appropriations bill for fiscal year has language
requesting that the INS develop a comprehensive interior enforce-
ment strategy-I will be interested in hearing about the progress
on this strategy in the hearing today.
With that, I would just like to say again that I appreciate the
dedication of everyone here present, in putting forth to stop crimi-
nal illegal immigration. I look forward to taking a closer look at
these issues today and continuing to work together to combat this
serious 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 of
you 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 talk
about some of the illegal immigration problems back home, most people were pretty
skeptical.
Then I presented these statistics, as reported in by the Salt Lake County
Board 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 Lake
City were undocumented aliens, but only six percent of these ended up in
hands.
The problems of illegal immigration no longer touch only our border states such
as California, New York, Florida and the Chairman's own state of Texas. In fact,
INS statistics show that out of every three illegal aliens to cross the border, only
one is picked up by the border guard.
a result, Salt Lake City, at the crossroads of Interstate which extends up
from 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 into
our interior states-like Utah.-
Today, we will hear testimony from several witnesses who will describe the illegal
immigration 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 several
measures to both elevate awareness of the interior illegal immigration enforcement
problem and find ways to solve it, including:
increasing personnel in and funding for INS offices located in interior states
to 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 processing
of 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 with
high concentration of criminal aliens to identify and process them before ar-
raignment and remove them as quickly as possible; and
instituting a new program that will allow the cross-deputization of local, state
and 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 to
focus 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 hearing
about 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 together
to 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, a
member of the Salt Lake County Board of Commissioners and the
Chair of Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Advisory Committee.
I come before you to share some of our grave concerns regarding
the Federal Government's failure to fulfill its responsibility in re-
moving criminal undocumented immigrants from our community.
Over the past few years, a consistent statistic which has been
very 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 immigrants
being 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 officers
and 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 two pages listing Salt
Lake 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 youth
services. This is a cost to our taxpayers. To have such a small per-
centage of our population who are here unlawfully committing so
many serious crimes including homicide, attempted murder, drug
sales, etc., is totally unacceptable.
equal concern is the fact that so far in we have had to
release other jail inmates who should have been detained but
have been freed due to the Federal decree which places a cap on
the total number of detainees within our jail. If we are not holding
to 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 address
these required releases. We absolutely cannot let undocumented
immigrant drug dealers have free reign over our streets. We, as
local residents, cities counties, and the state, are doing our part to
address 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 INS still has many
more cases that it can handle. Congress has authorized approxi-
mately new INS personnel, most of whom are slated for the
Border Patrol. This leaves the interior of our country unprotected.
Since two out of three attempts to illegally cross the border
are successful the INS's own figures, it makes little sense to
have the vast majority of INS personnel stationed there. Rather, a
significant portion of these 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 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 he
is 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 for
INS 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 in
which 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 to assure 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 correctional
officers. Thus far, the COPS grant has provided many new officers
who are on the street arresting criminals and bringing them to the
jail where the incarcerating authority, be it a county or a city, does
not have the staff to process them. The fact that we are being inun-
dated with criminal undocumented immigrants oily exacerbates
the problem. Please give consideration to this request.
In closing, please understand that we are grateful for all that
you have done and we know that you have worked hard to ensure
that Utah has the resources necessary to deal with what has be-
come our number one crime problem. The public is well aware of
this 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 undocumented
immigrants from our community. Over the past few years, a consistent statistic
which 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 has
increased 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 that
we 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 many
serious 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, we
would not be having this problem to this extent. As it is, we are spending
132,000,000
leases. propertyly tax
We absolute cannot let on
dollars a new jail in part to address these required re-
undocumented immigrant drug dealers have free
reign over our streets. We 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 for the
border patro l.This leaves the interior of our country unprotected. Since two out of
three 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 for being here illegally. Rather, we ask that when an
individual 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 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 U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations has reported out the fiscal
funding bill for the U.S. Justice Department in which it was noted that a tem-
porary holding facility for 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 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 to ensure that
happens will be most appreciated. Again, this will reserve limited jail space for the
detention and prosecution of our own criminals.
Fourth, please extend the COPS grant to include jail correctional officers. Thus
far, the COPS grant has provided many new officers who are on the street arresting
criminals and bringing them to the jail where the incarcerating authority, be it a
county or a city, does not have the staff to process them. The fact that we are being
inundated 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 and
we know that you 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 is
well aware of this issue and is demanding action. We simply cannot accept open air
drug markets and gun battles in our neighborhoods. The federal government must
step up and fulfill its responsibility to address this most pressing problem in our
community. 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 efforts
by 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 INS
is also directed to provide to the Committees on Appropriations reports on the
lowing: the feasibility of locating a permanent INS detention center at Salt Lake
City, and (2) the resources and training needed to address the overall INS mission
in Utah, with specific reference to detention space and the number and distribution
of agents assigned to the State. The reports should be delivered to the Committees
not later than January 31, 1999.1

'See Senate Report entitled

to accompany S.
 jail beds are in place or. under
construction.
Added new beds at the Oxbow Jail for
female inmates which allowed convening the
main jail women's section to additional
beds for mate inmates
Reconfigured 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 of
the full $120 million jail bond, acquiring an
additional 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.
The federal COPS program and general County
funds add 20 Sheriffs dispatchers
, The federal COPS program and 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 and other police agencies.
The County funded six new personnel and
equipment for the District Attorney which,
among other positive results, increases
prosecutions and reduces by six weeks the
required to process juvenile offenders.
victim advocates.
22 bailiffs and upgraded them in terms
of training and pay.
County Commission funded 7 new
personnel in the Legal Defenders office
 Commissioners met with Senator The County Commission matched a
Orrin Hatch for his assistance with the dramatic federal grant with to construct a
iicrease in criminal activity undocumented facility.
immigrants. Senator Hatch brought this issue
to the attention of the Attorney General who The County Commission added 50
subsequently assigned I I additional INS agents detoxification beds at two local shelters,
to the Salt Lake area and now a plane is flown releasing jail beds for more serious offenders.
to Salt Lake
Commission, in cooperation with
Salt and the
Participate the network $100,000 to implement a
which
new patterns and trends in
substance-abuse by-sharing
indicators and incidences County contracts
violence street and gang alcohol
in schools. treatment. An
usually
The reconstituted the which
composed human

senior criminal justice officials who work

to by

The to run an alternative them

which provides
in incarceration as
(the state provides The Life enhancement
alcohol counseling
and education, the
counseling
reviving
take
of continues irmediate
with Governor than simply releasing them with a citation and a
Congressional and federal and court-date.
agencies to and prevent crime.
 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 heard a great deal 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 dealing
and 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 Narcotics
Task 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 that
they 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 in
the State.
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 creative 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 jail space has allowed us to
increase 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 our
community.
First, we successfully commit judges to accepting guilty pleas to
drug charges and sentencing illegal aliens to jail, depending vol-
untary deportation. In order for this initiative to succeed, INS
needs to remove illegals from my jails as quickly as possible. At
any given time, I have more than 40 prisoners awaiting deporta-
tion.
Second, INS has a fingerprinting system which they use to track
illegal aliens. It is independent of the fingerprint system WIN, the
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 our jail to identify illegal aliens
that have not be entered in the WIN system. This would help pre-
vent premature release -of repeat offenders who have not been
through 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 steps
I have addressed. Certainly, this would significantly benefit our
local law enforcement initiatives aimed at addressing crime by ille-
gal aliens. But it would also complete a systemic solution to the
problem of crime committed by illegal aliens now, and for years to
come.
Finally, I suggest the INS 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 in
turn disrupt and deport criminal aliens and their support system
until the problem ceases to exist. The team would then move on to
another problem area. I believe that such a problem-solving activ-
ity 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 firsthand experience here in 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. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kennard follows:]
OF D. LAKE
Chairman Smith, Congressman Cannon, and Committee Staff, also welcome you
to Salt Lake City. am Sheriff Aaron D, Kennard, Salt Lake County Sheriff, and
member 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. Commissioner
Callaghan has fully and accurately stated our immense problem with illegal aliens
who continue to pose a significant crime problem to our communities, due to their
drug 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 residential
areas.
Today, offer you my personal testimony that one of our top crime problems here
in 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 now so
that 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 by
three hundred-fifty additional beds.
Still, the criminal aliens remain a serious burden on our jail population, and they
are 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 as
quickly 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 aliens
that 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 another
problem 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 you have a number 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 answer
questions 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. How
many 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 over
3,600 CDR arrests. That dropped as we expanded the spaces, as
the commissioner and sheriff have told you, with the 300 beds. So
that dropped to a thousand last year, and we are running about
the 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 what
CDR means?
Mr. KENNARD. CDR means consent decree release. We are under
a Federal court order that we cannot exceed a specific number of
population in the jail. Once we reach that cap, then we have to
start kicking prisoners loose. We determine the number to go out
by their threat to society.
Usually the people who are in jail for property crimes are the
ones that go out, and the violent offenders don't go out. Drug deal-
ing is considered a property crime, so that is basically what the
CDR 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 the
fact 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 have
to charge the INS, about two-thirds of the time, the INS simply
says, 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 going
on 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 to
come 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 back
to 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 out
of business are very slim, and they know that.
Mr. CANNON. Is that the reason for your idea of which I think
you 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 Federal
system and word gets out, Don't go to Salt Lake City because you
are going to go to jail and do hard time.
Mr. KENNARD. Well, either that or be deported, and that would
be the idea for the disruption team, the INS people, to be proactive
rather than reactive.
And the commissioner mentioned that we are working with you
for cross-deputization. Let me reaffirm that I have no intention of
cross-deputizing my deputies so they can enforce the INS laws. I
have enough to do in Salt Lake County with the local laws. I have
no intention of my people arresting people for illegal status.
My intention all along and continues to be if we have illegals in
my 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 asking
for was documentation and cross-deputization to allow my deputies
to assist the INS in deporting these people to Las Vegas or Denver
or 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 an
individual 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, hoping
we can take it to 2 hours and hopefully, eventually, that we can
identify any individual within 15 to 20 minutes.
Mr. CANNON. Let me ask Commissioner Callaghan, what is your
sense 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 were
sent 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, and
that 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 near
the airport. How would it work?
 Ms. CALLAGHAN. Right. The airport was mentioned because of
the ability to use the airplanes conveniently. We are not specific on
its location, but if we have several hundred individuals using up
space-and you saw this morning using up space in our jail, using
up 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 had
another facility near the airport, then those individuals could be
housed there while the INS could perform its requirements and
then 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 really
don'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're
here illegally that they be deported. But if they're committing
crimes, yes, they should be paying the price, but it costs us to
house 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 aggravated
reentry, 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 not
sufficient. 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 the
Federal 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. You
may 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. attorney
can prosecute.
Mr. CANNON. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. SMITH. Commissioner, you made the valid point that there
needs 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, is
largely necessary because of the number of criminal aliens in the
area, and yet those criminal aliens ought to be detained the
INS.
Right. Our current jail will only hold and
we are opening a new one to hold 2,000, in addition to beds
that 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 drug
treatment and expensive.
I am very happy about this committee and to serve on it. And
I am concerned when parents call me and say, My child found a
dirty 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 not
just financial but are also personal and human, and I think that
is a very, very good point.
I might add that if the INS was doing a better job at the root
cause, making sure that illegal aliens were not coming into the
country, you would not face such problems with criminal aliens.
CALLAGHAN. We don't want the drug trade here. We don't
want to continue to be a market.
Mr. SMITH. What is happening unfortunately in Salt Lake, we
are 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 or
Arkansas or Georgia, we are getting more and more reports that
criminal 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 rates
in America, if you want to do something about the crime rate in
Salt 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 of
getting 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, you
mentioned some astounding figures that ought to catch everybody's
attention. 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 the
total 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 at
under 1 percent.
Mr. SMITHI. Under 1 percent of the population is committing 50
percent of the felony drug crimes in the county and 80 percent in
the 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 here
and commit crimes, making sure they are apprehended and de-
ported as quickly as possible.
The other astounding figure you mentioned was the recidivism
rate, 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 75
to 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 a
person. We have to choose which is the biggest threat to society.
Mr. SMITH. And the solution, obviously, is to either not have
those 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 are
also building this new detention facility out by the airport; is that
what 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 either
selling 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 asking
Federal 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 time
Mr. SMITH. We thank you both for your testimony, and, again,
for 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, Regional
Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service, accompanied by
Mr. Michael Comfort, Acting District Director, Denver District Of-
fice, INS, and Mr. Meryl Rogers, Officer in Charge, Salt Lake City
Suboffice, INS. We welcome you all and look forward to hearing
your 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 you
take our condolences and convey our pride to the families of those
folks 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 problem
in Utah that can be traced to those who come to the United States
illegally, commit serious crimes, are convicted and deported as a re-
sult, and then come to Utah and continue criminal careers that
threaten public safety.
The project that we have been working on was conceived as a
way to interrupt the illegal reentry cycle that seems, at least, to
be the norm for illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes here
locally. 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 these
folks to up to 20 years in Federal prison. Successful prosecutions
eliminate them as recurring threats to public safety whether in
Utah or elsewhere. Once these folks are in Federal prison, they are
no longer a burden on our overtaxed jails and prison.
Mark Vincent, whom the congressman knows, set up our project
here in the district in September 1996. His work that year resulted
in the indictment of 80 aggravated felon reentry cases. There is a
chart 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 by
Senator 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, Henri
Sisneros, and Michele Mladejovsky started work at different times
last year, but all were on board by March of 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-
 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 the
total 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 these
cases 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 there
after 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 are
now 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 serious
the 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 by
working 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 States
includes 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 a
reckless 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, is
that 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 you
know 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 away
under 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 the
defendants that will talk to us why they came to Utah. What we
hear from the few of those that will talk suggests that many of our
defendants came to Utah with the idea that law enforcement is
overwhelmed 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 of
one. nationality for special treatment. That has not been the focus
of this project. The thrust of the project has been simply to ensure
public safety identifying, prosecuting, and locking away those
who pose the most significant and most serious threat to peace and
well-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 the
fears of citizens and legal immigrants that they will be unfairly or
mistakenly caught up in our project.
I speak regularly with the Mexican Consul, Ms. Anacelia Perez
de Meyer. am proud to report that the district has received un-
qualified support from Ms. Meyer and from others with respect to
this particular program, the Aggravated Felon Prosecution Reentry
Prosecution Project. So far, the project is a success, but there are
several things that need to happen in order for us to continue to
do 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 many
strategic 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 the
system.
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 detain
in order to process them for deportation. Nearly all of the Federal
detainees now awaiting trial, sentencing or designation in the jails
in 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 in
the 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 strategy
that 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 reentry
after 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 that
things were tougher in Utah now, but if he laid low for a year he
could come here without worry. He was told that the authorities in
Utah would eventually give up. The whole project would die in a
year, 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 come
true.
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 be
traced 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 our
overtaxed 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 had
charged 201 defendants this year, bringing the total number since the inception of
the 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 State
Prison and in the Salt Lake County Jail after they were convicted and sentenced
for state offenses.
The number of defendants who have been prosecuted is low in relation to the
number 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 a
better 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 traveled
to 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 to
you and me.
* The first case involves a year old man who was sentenced on July As
an aggravated felon he received a federal sentence of months. His long
criminal history in the United States includes local convictions in California
for possession of stolen property, battery on a police officer, driving under the
influence, resisting arrest, hit and run resulting in death, and manslaughter.
He was convicted in Arizona for illegally reentering the country. He was
ported to Mexico twice; once from California and again from Arizona. Ie has
two 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 on
January after serving a four year California prison term for narcot-
ics trafficking. In April he was convicted in federal court in California
and served a twenty-four month sentence for entering the country illegally.
He was deported to Mexico from California on January 22, His criminal
record 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 heroin
to 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 simply
typical of the defendants we are prosecuting. They demonstrate the dangers these
people 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 hear
suggests many of our defendants came to Utah with the idea that law enforcement
is 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 the
pace and well-being of this community. I have gone to leaders in the Mexican and
Mexican-American communities to explain the program, field questions about what
we are trying to do, and to calm the fears of citizens and legal immigrants that they
will be unfairly or mistakenly caught up in our project or harassed as a result. I
speak regularly with the Mexican Consul, Ms. Anacelia Perez de Meyer. I am proud
to report that the District has received unqualified support for the project from
these 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 and
our 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 allow
the 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 caused
suspects who give false identities when they enter the system.
The Memorandum of Understanding between local law enforcement and the
Senice must be acted upon quickly so that officers can be carefully selected,
properly trained and then rapidly deployed to assist the Service in identifying
criminal 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 process
for deportation convicted felons and aggravated felons who are not eligible for
prosecution as aggravated felon reentries.
There must be support for contracting for and building additional jail space
in the District, to house defendants being prosecuted federally
keeping 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 that
will result from more and more defendants being fed into the system the
project, people for whom release is not an alternative. The jail space issue is
not a purely federal problem. The federal need for 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. need local and
national 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. The
Interior Enforcement Strategy drafted by the Service encourages coordination
with United States Attorneys to build a "national prosecution program for
criminal alien reentry after removal." In Utah, the program is already in
place. The best way to achieve the Service's goals and objectives for interior
enforcement 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 he
was told by people in Mexico that things were tougher in Utah, but if he laid low
for a year he could come here without worry. He was told the authorities in Utah
would eventually give up. The whole project would die in a year, they said. I don't
want 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 I
would 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. From
all 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 the
issues from the important parts of the discussion.
 Just so you know who is sitting at the table, I am the regional
director for the Immigration Service. have operational responsibil-
ities for field offices in States to include both the Border Patrol
and 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 been
detailed into the region to help us work out some of these very
issues 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 about
criminal 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 the
United States of America that have been in place for decades. It
has taken us a long time to build the mess we have today. It is
going to take us a while to get out of it.
Most of the people that are passing through this community are
people destined to work sites. The great majority of these people
are-except for the fact that they have violated our immigration
laws-are here to find work. They are not criminal aliens.
There is such a huge population of undocumented aliens in the
United States now that even when a small percentage engage in
criminal 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. We
can show from past experience that that does not work.
We are attempting to gain control of certain parts of our border
in a very measured way, and then grow off of that, and then go
on and deny another area of terrain.
We are not making any representations to anybody that we are
stopping the flow of undocumented workers in the United States of
America. We are telling you that in time we are going to have a
border that has the proper resources and integrity to become a sig-
nificant deterrent to that.
And that has come about, Mr. Chairman, much through your
guidance, as well as the interior enforcement strategy where
are now going.
We need to establish removal corridors in this United States. The
alien smugglers have smuggling corridors that have been set up for
decades.
There are networks in place to smuggle people from any part
along the Mexican border to any place in the United States. It is
an 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 corridors
that 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. The
messages to Mexico and the other countries that seem to be in the
limelight right now is "it is okay to come to the United States." "It
is 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 and
talk to them, they ask "what the heck is going on here." "Do you
want 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 that
message 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 react
to 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-our
number one priority. The sheriff has spoken with great wisdom this
morning. endorse virtually everything that he has said, and it is
really 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 enforcement
leaders 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 what
their 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 the
process 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 it
be 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 we
have 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, the
measurement of success in this is, are they going to come back to
the community?
That is where the community engages. That is when the commu-
nity goes out and says, you come back into this community, you
are 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 this
community. You will be arrested and the United States attorney
will prosecute you as a felon. You will be incarcerated and you will
be removed again."
The enforcement will continue to mount. We do not have to wait
for them to be a recidivist. All we have to do is wait for them to
come back into the community. The message needs to be strong. It
will 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 and
we 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-the
capacity to actually detain these people and move them through
the system is a heck of a challenge, but it is doable. It is especially
doable if we have the communities buying into this--delegation of
authority.
If we have got local law enforcement agencies that are willing to
transport people to locations where we can set up hub sites, where
we can build infrastructures around to arrange for formal removal
out of the United States, we can do this. We cannot do it alone.
There are only about-and these are approximations-just for
purposes of trying to look at this thing from a large perspective, we
only 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. Although
criminal aliens is number one, we still have smugglers, we still
have 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 if
we tried to station an immigration officer in every county jail
days 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 special
agents to a special agent in every one of your county jails
days 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 to

speak today. I am the Regional Director for the Central and have oper-
ational responsibility for all activities states, including Utah, which is
part of the Denver District. am here to address the of criminal aliens
in the state of Utah, and more importantly, steps we have taken and will take to
meet 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 do
without. 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 arrest
criminal aliens in the community or passing through the state, as well as
identify 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 nine
months 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. Video
conferencing 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 Jail
in Provo in the initial phase of video conferencing. The new Salt Lake County Jail
is scheduled to be completed during the summer of 1999. Once built, we expect to
install video conferencing there in cooperation with the Salt Lake County Sheriffs
Department.
INS will work with southern Utah law enforcement agencies to implement video
conferencing in jails and prisons there.

After apprehending criminal aliens, the issue becomes detention. view is that
detention should be as brief and as limited as possible, as resources are better spent
in 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 the
Wasatch 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 throughout
the state for other options. We are currently using the Wackenhut facility in Aurora,
Colorado, to house detainees until more beds become available. There is potential
for additional detention space in the region, however.
Davis County is building a jail facility; when it is completed in December of this
year, we will have 40 additional beds available to house our detainees.
The Washington County Purgatory Detention Center in Hurricane, Utah, has
been 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" for
the 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 and
operating 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 and
Alien Transportation System (JPATS), a federal prisoner aircraft transport service
under the management of the U.S. Marshals Service, has been and will continue
to remove aliens from Utah. In addition, ground transportation is used to move
aliens from the Salt Lake City area to other INS facilities, or remove them from
the country.
Within the past year, the Utah INS office has received four new maxi-vans and
one 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. New
laws, along with greater cooperation among U.S. enforcement entities, have given
teeth 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 continue
the same fine working relationship with U.S. Attorney designate Paul Warner.
Aliens successfully prosecuted serve their time in federal prisons, relieving Utah of
the jail space burden.
During fiscal year the U.S. Attorney's office criminally prosecuted 80 aliens
for 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 184 per cent
increase so far, with more than two months remaining in the fiscal year.

The state of Utah faces some real immigration challenges. We undoubtedly have
a 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 officer
functions. The immigration law passed in i996 cleared the way for this concept, and
the 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 to
indices 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 weekly
flights 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 City
office 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 of
those 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 recently
hired 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 of
what 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
routinely identified 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 the
command center if an alien appears amenable to removal the
In addition, the will expand the use of video conferencing equipment in local
and 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, we
will force these criminals to use other routes.
 Once smuggling on 1-80 in Nebraska has dried up and a maintenance system is
in 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 halt
smuggling. The Center will provide 24-hour telephonic support to law enforcement
agencies in number of states who encounter suspected smuggling loads. This will
enable 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 interior
the United States. While we will continue to remove unauthorized workers from
the workplace, it has become clear that we must develop new strategies, especially
for industries that historically have attracted large numbers of illegal aliens.
chose meatpacking plants in the midwest as a starting point, since illegal
aliens make up approximately percent of the industry's workforce. Communities
surrounding meatpacking plants continue to experience problems that accompany
the illegal population, including crime and burdened social services.
goal is to reduce the number of unauthorized workers in the meat-packing
industry by providing industry managers with fast and frequent employment eligi-
bility
will establish an "employment eligibility clearing house." INS will obtain cop-
of forms (employment eligibility verification) for employees of meat packing
plants, which will forwarded to the clearing house location or locations. There,
working in cooperation with other agencies, staff will verify employment eligibility
for 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 enabling
plant managers to stabilize their workforce.

In conclusion, want to thank you again for asking me to testify here today. It
is 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 and
the others in this room have put forth in looking for solutions. look forward to
meeting 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 already
been deported once.
Mr. SCIIWENDIMAN. That is right.
Mr. CANNON. You don't have a reentry case unless they have
been deported. Would you distinguish between that kind of reentry
case and the deportation case, and the elements of the crime
charged, what you have to do to prove it.
Mr. SCHENDIMAN. Sure. Very simply, a person who reenters the
United States after been convicted of a serious aggravated
felony-and those are defined in the code--we have chosen to
speak about three: violent crime, serious property crime, and nar-
 32

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

aggravated felony.
If a person is convicted of an aggravated felony, is deported,
comes back to the United States, that person is an aggravated felon
reentry, and we prosecute that person as an aggravated felon re-
entry.
Now, if a person is simply convicted of a crime, not necessarily
one of the aggravated felonies-a misdemeanor, for example-and
is deported subsequent to that because they were here illegally and
they come back, we would not necessarily have an aggravated felon
reentry case.
Mr. Okay. But what does it take to deport a person who
is 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 the
burden does the defendant have to show that he is
Mr. SCHWENDIMAN. I think Mark is probably in a better position
to tell you what it takes to get deported.
Mr. a person is deported once and reenters, what are
the 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 deported
and comes back and back-not by your definition an aggravated
criminal 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 committed
an 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 act
that 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 for
a criminal-an aggravated criminal reentry prosecution-are pretty
terrific, are they not? You want to do a total of about 400 over a
3-year period?
Mr. REED. Actually, we will do probably 400 just this year. We
have 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 the
future. is going to happen in the mind of people who want
to 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, a
by-product of having done so many of people this way al-
ready. We are getter word back in some cases that this is a bit
scarier place to come than they might have thought before.
have talked to the first assistant, Howard Slot, in Nevada, who
has been real interested in what we are doing. And they are going
to start doing what we are doing because they are seeing the same
sort of numbers in their jails. What will happen is we will chase
them all from here and they will go someplace else unless we have
got an across-the-board strategy.
Mr. they are deported, they are amenable to criminal
rosecution. 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 turn
here, but it is probably one of the more simple felony prosecutions
available.
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 is
what 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 Salt
Lake 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 have
to 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 the
sheriff 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 they
are prosecuted, they probably won't do time, they will probably be
released.
We heard the sheriff say awhile ago that 75 to 80 percent are
released. It doesn't take long, I would think, for the word to get out
there, that the odds are with you. And from the criminal's point of
view, the rewards outweigh the odds of being punished.
It seems to me that the first message for us to send goes to that
first chart, Mr. Schwendiman, that you put up there, which is the
number of prosecutions increasing.
As Mr. Reed just said, when that word gets out there, you might
expect the prosecutions to go down. That does not mean you are
not doing your job. In some sense, that might mean you are being
successful, assuming there are fewer people to be prosecuted. So I
think 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 else
in the country, we are really not doing our job, and you are not
helping our friends in the law enforcement business.
The root of the problem is still the border. And until we deter
illegal 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 agree
that 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 types
of things. We certainly have not been approaching this the right
way. Toe way we have been approaching this is very resource and
manpower intensive. We don't have the resources.
In many cases, we don't have the right relationship set up with
State and local governments to allow this to happen. We don't have
the appropriate detention strategy in place.
Mr. SMITH. It is my understanding that the INS deports 90,000
to 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 we
have got about 300,000 people coming into the country illegally
eaf year; is that also correct?
REED. Yes. I will even take it a step farther than that. I will
tell you what is happening to us because we don't have the appro-
priate relationships set up in the communities. I used to work in
San Diego. I am going to have to insert some of this California
stuff because I think it tells a good story.
In southern California, we have got a tremendous system set up
to identify criminals in the state penal system and we get them re-
moved. They are all aggravated felons. They are bad guys. These
people are removed into Mexico.
These are individuals, for a great part, who came to the United
States legally when they were young people. They have grown up
in a world of crime. They are bad people. The only thing they know
is 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 as
you and "I do. They went to school in the schools we went to. They
were raised in the United States of America, and they are coming
back 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 deterrent
step. We have not got there yet because we have got our people in
jail. We are doing the first part of it better, identifying people, but
we 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 street
and-
Mr. SMITH. But the people you just described, gather, are here
legally; 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 you
say they grew up here, they went to school here, they were born
here, I presume they are citizens.
Mr. REED. lot of these people started out with a lawful status
at some point in time, and at some subsequent point in time be-
cause of their criminal activity, that lawful status is taken away
and they are now undocumented.
Mr. SMITH. I understand. So the problem is not just with illegal
immigrants, 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 just
described, and you are deporting or less, than it is getting
worse every year.
There are more and more people in the country illegally who are
potentially 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 the
word "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 all
agree need to be accomplished?
Mr. REED. Mr. Chairman, can't answer that very well. I know
that 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 same
goals and you hear the same words from the administration and
from members of Congress, we certainly ought to get together on
the additional financial resources as well.
Mr. REED. We should, Mr. Chairman. And to the administration's
credit, if we are going to go that way-we have been challenged
very much realizing that at my level that we are not going to get
some 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 in
the past. have been with Congressmen from Nebraska, Iowa-I
don't want to go through it again. Everybody wants more agents
in 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 hundred
agents just going in the jails-forget about the detention halls and
all the other ones.
Mr. SMITH. am saying it would be nice if the administration
converted 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 over
to Congressman Cannon and ask him if he will make some conclud-
ing remarks.
Mr. CANNON. Thank you very much for your testimonies. These
are difficult issues. We share some serious concerns-these are bi-
partisan, I might say, across the committee, about how resources
are 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 apply
those better and the use of technology better. We really need to do
something and we need to do it soon.
This problem goes to the moral fiber of our community as you
start selling the new generation of drugs. It goes to the perception
of American citizens about what constraints should be and where
they 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 on
the second panel. I thank everybody here for their interest in such
a crucial, important, and personal issue. And, with that, the Immi-
gration Subcommittee will stand adjourned.
[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]