The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SECRET EVIDENCE SUSPENSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S125 on Jan. 31, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SECRET EVIDENCE SUSPENSION
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, our Nation's commitment to due process has been placed in doubt by the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings.
Until recently, the Department of Justice's use of secret evidence was not well known to the general public. Secret evidence was known only to some immigrants who have been held for months, sometimes years, without any opportunity to confront their accusers or examine the evidence against them.
As the Washington Post of October 19, 1997, put it, the process is authorized by:
[A] little-known provision of immigration law in effect since the 1950s allows secret evidence to be introduced in certain immigration proceedings. The classified information, usually from the FBI, is shared with judges, but withheld from the accused and their lawyers.
The use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings threatens to violate basic principles of fundamental fairness. The only three Federal courts to review its use in the last decade have all found it unconstitutional. Yet the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS, continues to use it and to do so virtually without any limiting regulations. Under current law, the INS takes the position that it can present evidence in camera and ex parte whenever it is classified evidence relevant to an immigrant's application for admission, an application for an immigration benefit, a custody determination, or a removal proceeding.
The Attorney General herself has expressed concern over the use of secret evidence--and for good reason.
In October 1999, a district court declared the INS' use of secret evidence to detain aliens unconstitutional. Five days later, the INS dropped its efforts to deport a man it had held for over a year and a half on the basis of secret evidence.
In November 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that an Egyptian man detained on secret evidence for 3 and-a-half years should be released, and the Attorney General declined to intervene to continue his detention.
Earlier in 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the BIA, granted permanent resident status to a Palestinian against whom the INS had used secret evidence and alleged national security concerns. In all of these cases the government claimed that national security was at risk, yet in none of them were the individuals even charged with committing any criminal acts.
The Attorney General has promised to promulgate regulations to govern the INS's use of secret evidence, but has not yet done so. In May of 1999, the Attorney General came to my state of Michigan to meet with Arab-American leaders and members of the Michigan Congressional delegation to discuss concerns about the use of secret evidence. At that meeting, she said she would implement a new policy, one in which the Department would implement a higher level of review, and take extra precautions before using secret evidence. She said she would have those regulations relative to the use of secret evidence within a reasonable time.
In December, the Attorney General visited Michigan again. She had still not promulgated the promised regulations. She told us that she was dedicated to resolving this issue, and she was actively reviewing draft regulations, but that she was uncomfortable issuing those regulations in the form they had been presented to her by her staff.
Mr. President, the Attorney General may eventually offer the promised regulations. But at the current time, she is not capable of putting a process in writing that is satisfactory even to her. It has been almost nine months now since the Attorney General agreed to look in to this matter, and promulgate regulations that will govern the use of this process. Under these circumstances, when the Attorney General cannot even satisfy herself that a fair process is in place, the use of this secret process should be suspended until she can, and I urge the Attorney General to do exactly that: suspend the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings immediately until she can promulgate regulations relative to its use.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. THOMAS. What section are we in now, Mr. President?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair advises the Senate is in morning business until 2 p.m.
____________________
