DRUG CONVICTS STILL CAN FACE DEPORTATION, FRANK SAYS

The Justice Department may still seek retroactive deportations without
appeal for legal aliens with drug convictions, said Rep. Barney Frank,
though he said the practice of deporting those convicted of lesser
crimes should end.

One day after the Supreme Court ruled on four different immigration
cases, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., said he feels the Justice Department will
interpret the Goncalves vs. Reno decision to mean that no more
retroactive deportations without appeal will occur in cases of moral
turpitude such as theft, forgery and other misdemeanors. But those
with drug convictions will not be spared.

Mr. Goncalves had been convicted of receiving stolen property and
yesterday the Supreme Court let stand a decision by the First Circuit
Court which said that Mr. Goncalves could not be deported for crimes
before 1996 without being able to appeal the repatriation before an
immigration judge.

"His actual case involved moral turpitude, which is not 100 percent
what we want," said Rep. Frank. "It moves in the right direction but
many of our cases have involved aggravated felons."

Rep. Frank believes the Justice Department will still pursue
retroactive deportations without appeal for drug convictions.

However, he says there may now be enough support in Congress to change
deportation clauses in the 1996 Anti-Terrorism law and end retroactive
deportations entirely.

"I am still excited about the ruling," he said. "I am hoping at the
very least it means we are going to have to legislate this. The
Supreme Court upheld decisions in 1st Circuit and 2nd Circuit and said
that the Justice Department was misinterpreting the statute. So I will
be pressing the Justice Department to stop using it retroactively even
for aggravated felons.

"This ruling clearly shows that the law needs to be changed and I will
be introducing legislation to reverse some of the language in the
Anti-Terrorism law," he added. "We want to put the law back to where
it used to be so that bad people can still be deported but with some
basis for cases to be reviewed."

Rep. Frank said the timing may be right as many Mexican-Americans are
being affected by the law and are also protesting its
implementation.

He said that he recently met with the Cape Verdean and Portuguese
ambassadors and their primary concern was deportation and how it has
affected their nations.

There are more than 300 deportees now living in the Azores. There are
an estimated 100 deportees now living in Cape Verde Islands. Many of
the deportees arrived in this country at a young age, were educated
here and committed one or more felonies or misdemeanors, which
resulted in probation or jail sentences of at least a year. That, in
turn, kicked off deportation proceedings for many legal aliens.

In Cape Verde, he said, one island with a population of 300 natives
has as many as 20 to 30 deportees now living there.

The Azorean and Cape Verdean governments have complained that the
deportees have contributed to increased crime in their regions as well
as fostering social and economic ills.

"It just doesn't make any logical sense to take someone who was 2
years old when they arrived here and send them back to a country where

they cannot even speak the language," Rep. Frank said. "America should
not be exporting people who are in trouble."

And worldwide deportation has become a hot topic, said Nancy Lee Wood,
a Bristol Community College professor of sociology. She points out
that some countries like Vietnam refuse to take back those who have
been repatriated. She said she will be speaking with Portuguese
officials to determine why they have not refused re-entry for deports
as well.

In those cases, people who are refused re-entry end up staying in a
U.S. Immigration detention center.

She said that deportation is a way for countries to continuously
assert their sovereignty in a global world.

Ms. Wood said that despite it being considered uncivil, it has grown
in popularity because immigrants have become the scapegoats for many
countries' ills.

"One of the ways for nations to claim more power is to institute these
types of laws which give an illusion of sovereignty," she said. "A
large part of what we have seen in welfare reform and immigration laws
were fostered in a climate of suspicion, fear, animosity and -- worst
of all -- scapegoatism. It is about time some constitutional law
kicked in to this mess."