At Nominee’s Hearing, Feinstein Calls for U.S. Strategy on Illegal Immigrants

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Tuesday urged the nominee for deputy attorney general to help develop a strategy for stemming the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, warning of a “terrible backlash” if the Justice Department fails to do so.

“It’s up to this government and this (Justice) Department to control the border,” she told Philip B. Heymann at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination as the department’s second-ranking official.

Feinstein said California spends $300 million a year “on incarceration of 16,000 illegal alien felons, many of whom were previously rejected from the United States.”

Heymann, noting that the issue will be the responsibility of Associate Atty. Gen.-designate Webster Hubbell, whose confirmation hearing begins today, said he would work with Hubbell to develop such a strategy.

“In my state, it is becoming a major issue” and “unless we deal with it, there is going to be a terrible backlash, an unfortunate backlash, a long backlash in the future,” Feinstein said. California already is “economically stressed,” and 3,000 to 5,000 people come over the U.S.-Mexico border illegally every night, she said.

Feinstein cited estimates that more than 50% of some Superior Court dockets in California involve cases in which illegal aliens are accused of committing crimes. She said the problem is “a very real concern to people.”

U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has recently emphasized that 26% of current federal prisoners are illegal aliens.

The Clinton Administration has proposed $810 million in grants to help states cover immigration-related costs for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, an increase from the $311 million allocated in the current year. The lion’s share goes to California, Texas and Florida. In a speech Tuesday in Van Nuys, President Clinton also commented on federal immigration aid, saying: “I don’t want to mislead you. There is not as much money here in the budget as a lot of people asked for from California. But there’s a whole lot more--I mean, several hundred million dollars more--than was previously given.”

The questions from Feinstein--who also challenged Heymann on drug policy--were the most rigorous he faced in the daylong hearing; it appeared virtually certain the committee would support his confirmation.

On drugs, Feinstein brushed aside the appointment of former New York City Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown as head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, saying she did not believe “the appointment of a drug czar is going to change anything.”

Asked about “specific initiatives” to combat illicit drugs, Heymann emphasized the need to break the relationship between narcotics and the commission of other crimes.

He proposed that drug violators who are paroled be released on the condition that they undergo drug testing twice weekly. Those that fail the tests would immediately be sent back to jail for a month or two. If they fail when paroled again, they should be returned for an even longer period, he said.

Heymann said he believed such an approach would “make a dent” both in the violators’ use of drugs and in the crimes they commit.

In the only other moment with even a hint of controversy, Heymann backed away from comments attributed to him by the New York Times on Sunday that the Justice Department’s investigation into the 51-day cult standoff in Waco, Tex., would not include an examination of the decision to use tanks and tear gas in an effort to expel cult members from the compound.

Heymann, who is heading the department’s investigation of the events in Waco--where as many as 80 died in a fire on the final day--also was quoted as saying that investigators had not decided whether to interview Reno, who approved the FBI operation.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), committee chairman, opened the hearing by expressing concern over the report.

Heymann said the “heart” of the investigation from “the Justice Department point of view will be April 19--the day of the fire.” He also said the investigation would be “without bounds” and would include an interview with Reno and as many as 900 other people, making it “the most thorough, detailed Department of Justice investigation one can imagine.”

Times staff writer David Lauter contributed to this article.