From time to time my office distributes press releases and written statements on state and national issues, debate in the Senate, and legislation that I am working on. For your convenience, I post these documents on my site for your review.
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New Bill Helps Block Human Rights Abusers from Entering U.S.
The bill would close a harmful loophole in federal immigration law, extending criminal penalties to individuals that help known human rights abusers enter the country.
Federal law currently prohibits helping aliens enter the U.S. when they have a criminal record of convictions for controlled substances, human trafficking, or money laundering, but a 1990 drafting oversight unintentionally carved out an exception for other serious crimes, including human rights abuses.
The bill introduced last week, S. 3166, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to extend the list of prohibited crimes to include acts of torture, Nazi persecution, and genocide.
“This legislation closes a dangerous loophole that has hindered law enforcement’s efforts to keep known human rights abusers from entering the country,” Sessions said. “The Senate should move quickly to give prosecutors and border agents the tools they need to shut down efforts that might help these individuals gain entry into the United States.”
“At the end of the last century we saw horrific crimes take place in Bosnia and Rwanda. Sadly, we are seeing similar crimes today in Darfur and Burma,” Durbin said. “It is our obligation to the victims of these terrible acts to find and punish those responsible while doing all we can to ensure the United States is not a safe haven for perpetrators of such crimes.”
The legislation, which has been endorsed by the U.S. Department of Justice, was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, on which Sessions and Durbin sit.
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