Home Countries of US Illegals Often Refuse Repatriation

Since 08-11-06

By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

August 10, 2006

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200608/NAT20060810b.html

(CNSNews.com) - Foreign governments, whose citizens violate U.S. immigration law and then commit crimes while in America, should be forced to pay restitution to the victims of those crimes, according to Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe.

Poe would also like to penalize foreign governments that refuse to repatriate their citizens who have entered the U.S. illegally. Those countries, he said, should have their U.S. foreign aid reduced, where possible.

"Right now, there are no consequences for these governments not taking their own people back," Poe told Cybercast News Service. "Instead, we are the ones that have to pay the consequences."

U.S. immigration officials expect that more than 300,000 criminal aliens will be incarcerated in state correctional facilities in Fiscal Year 2007 -- individuals who are deportable under American law.

An internal audit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), obtained by Cybercast News Service, also reveals that another 25,000 individuals are expected to be incarcerated on the federal level and targeted for deportation.

However, in many cases, the home countries of these criminal aliens refuse to take them back.

Poe has already pushed for cutting foreign aid to countries that defy repatriation. He added an amendment to the Foreign Operations spending bill (HR 5522) earlier this year, but it was later withdrawn. DeeAnn Thigpen, the press secretary to Poe, said the congressman plans another attempt to win support for the bill.

Poe is also currently working on legislation that would make it possible for American citizens to seek compensation in court from foreign governments whose citizens have committed crimes in the U.S.

The issues of deportation and repatriation have been complicated by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in Washington, D.C.

In one case, Zadvydas v. Davis, the U.S. government used a resident alien's criminal record to try to deport him to Lithuania, where his parents lived, and then to Germany, but both countries refused.

After Kestutis Zadvydas was held in custody for six months and there was still no prospect of him being deported, the Supreme Court ruled that he could not be held indefinitely. Zadvydas was ultimately released. The case was decided in June 2001 in a 5-4 ruling.

Another case involved two Cuban nationals who were ordered deported, but after 90 days had elapsed and their deportation appeared unforeseeable, attorneys for the men successfully argued that they should be freed. Clark v. Martinez was decided in Jan. 2005 in a 7-2 ruling.

The DHS internal audit, which focused on ICE's Office of Detention and Removal (DRO), showed that in Fiscal Year 2003, Ethiopia, Eritrea, China, India, Iran, Jamaica, Laos and Vietnam refused to submit travel documents for the repatriation of their own citizens.

China and India are the two most defiant countries in terms of repatriation, according to the audit. Zuieback estimated that roughly 40,000 Chinese are in the U.S. illegally and awaiting deportation. But, as a result of the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, criminal aliens and even "high risk" aliens must be released following "the issuance of the final removal order."

Since the U.S. does not provide China with foreign aid funding, Poe has another suggestion. "If they refuse to take back lawfully deported individuals, we can cut the number of visas we give out whereby we let people in legally," he said. "This can include student visas."

The audit report shows that as of June 2004, there were over 133,662 illegal aliens who were "unlikely" to ever be repatriated as a result of the "unwillingness" of their home country to provide the necessary travel documentation and arrangements.

A variety of methods are employed by those countries that work to thwart U.S. immigration policy. Ethiopia, for instance, will not issue travel documents for repatriation unless proof can be furnished that shows the illegal alien in the U.S. had parents who were born in Ethiopia. It is also necessary for illegals to demonstrate that they still have family members residing in Ethiopia at the moment repatriation is sought.

Iran requires illegal aliens to "to produce overwhelming documentary evidence of their nationality."

The DHS audit report shows that in Fiscal Year 2003, the detention of both criminal and non-criminal aliens from the "top eight uncooperative countries that block repatriation" took up 981,202 detention days and cost over $80 million.

The report adds that the lack of cooperation on the part of foreign governments has "created a mini-amnesty program for tens of thousands of illegal aliens."