White House to Seek Faster Deportation of Alien Felons : Narcotics: The proposal would bar court hearings and appeals. Officials say foreign nationals are increasingly involved in drug trade.

Faced with increasing involvement in the U.S. drug trade by foreign nationals, the Bush Administration will seek to shortcut proceedings for deporting aliens convicted of aggravated felonies, it was learned Tuesday.

Immigration court hearings and lengthy appeals would no longer be available to those alien felons, who could be deported by order of the attorney general or his designee, according to the proposal.

The tougher provisions, to be included in Administration drug legislation expected to be introduced today, are being advanced against a backdrop of a 600% increase in aliens in U.S. prisons since 1980, versus an 82% increase in the general prison population.

More than 80% of the imprisoned aliens have been convicted of narcotics violations, compared with about 50% for all federal prisoners.

The proposal touched off immediate alarms by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund for limiting what they contend is constitutionally guaranteed due process of law.

But an official of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said:

“The problem of criminal aliens has a tremendously adverse, sometimes paralyzing, impact on the nation’s criminal justice systems. The efforts of the criminal justice systems to cope with the glut of alien criminals has been compounded by a cumbersome and ineffectual deportation system.”

The official said the government’s ability to expel an alien criminal effectively has been frustrated by what he described as “inordinately lengthy administrative and judicial processes.”

Aliens facing deportation have the right to have their cases considered by an immigration judge, with appellate review by the Board of Immigration Appeals. Moreover, subsequent reviews by federal district courts and circuit courts of appeals are available.

The Administration bill would replace these procedures with a ruling of the attorney general or his designee, from which there would be no administrative review. In addition to aggravated felons, the new procedure would cover non-immigrant aliens found to be in possession of narcotics at the time they apply for entry to the United States.

A General Accounting Office report on immigration control in October found that exclusion cases sent to the Board of Immigration Appeals usually took more than three years to resolve.

But Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project, said that such delays generally cannot be blamed on the alien. Up to a year is often required to produce a deportation hearing transcript, he noted.

Mario Moreno, who heads MALDEF’s Washington office, contended that denying an individual in the United States due process could be “a slippery slope” that is justified in the name of the war on drugs. “But where do you draw the line on this erosion of a basic constitutional principle?” he asked.

Arnold Torres, national political adviser to the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he was not surprised by the proposal. He said he was disappointed the Administration had failed to move as swiftly to correct discrimination caused by sanctions or penalties against employers who hire illegal aliens.

In addition to providing for the shortcut deportation procedure, the Administration bill would broaden the definition of aggravated felony from murder, drug trafficking or illicit dealing in firearms or destructive devices to include crimes of physical or threatened force against a person or property. Such violations, punishable by five years or more imprisonment, are often associated with drug crimes.

The bill also would bar an alien convicted of an aggravated felony from being granted political asylum in the United States.

In a related development, it was learned that officials from the State and Justice departments and from the Drug Control Policy Office are discussing a system under which the United States would reimburse foreign governments for incarcerating their nationals who are convicted of crimes in this country.

The reimbursement program would be designed to relieve U.S. prison overcrowding and to house the violators at less cost than in the United States.