Washington, DC – Congressman Bill Shuster met with senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials late this afternoon to discuss the Padilla case and the federal government’s response. 

“I requested a timeline of all events relating to Padilla to get a better understanding of what went wrong,” said Shuster.  “There are major problems in how we deal with illegal immigration in this country.  There is a great deal of red tape and too many loopholes for illegal aliens to slip through.” 

Acting Assistant Director for Investigations Bill Reid and Claude Arnold, who handled the Padilla case at ICE headquarters, came to Congressman Shuster’s Washington office for the meeting today.  Reid also serves as the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) for the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions and with that is responsible for developing an enforcement strategy for that area of responsibility. 

The timeline requested by Shuster is expected to be in his office by next week and will be used to help close policy gaps between local, state and federal law enforcement. 

“We need to provide all law enforcement officers – local and federal – with the tools they need to protect our borders and stop illegal immigration,” said Shuster.  “We need to put the right laws in place, and to do that, we need to work with these officials.  The Padilla case is an example that happens far too often, and today’s meeting proved that further to me.”