In a growing number of cases where countries won't repatriate criminal aliens who have received deportation orders in the United States, the State Department has refused to use its power under federal law to block visas or financial aid to those countries according to The Washington Times. This results in thousands of violent criminals being released back into American communities, including Jean Jacques who was convicted of murdering Casey Chadwick in Connecticut earlier this year after his native country of Haiti wouldn't take him back.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is tasked with deporting criminal aliens once they have served their time in jail, but under a Supreme Court ruling they are not allowed to hold a criminal alien for more than 6 months if their home country refuses to repatriate them. It is the State Department who has the ability to block visas and financial aid from countries who fail to cooperate with ICE officials, yet they have been unwilling to use these powers.
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that ICE keeps, "getting blown off by the Department. This is a situation where it needs to be raised to a higher level, and someone needs to show some leadership, such as the president."
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed concern writing, "Lives are being lost, the public's safety is at risk, and American families are suffering, it cannot continue."
According to ICE there are 23 countries that the agency deems uncooperative and 62 that are on ICE's watch list but do cooperate from time to time.
The only time the State Department has blocked visas from a country was in 2001, under the Bush Administration, to the country Guyana for not repatriating criminal aliens with deportation orders. It worked and within two months the backlog of 112 illegal aliens with deportation orders were repatriated, a 99% success rate.
Despite this success, the State Department has been unwilling to use this power again for fear of angering foreign governments. State Department spokeswoman, Nicole Thompson, said, "The Department of State believes continued close interagency cooperation and coordinated approaches, both in Washington and at posts overseas, form the best strategy to make progress on repatriations."
However, according to a recent report by the Center of Immigration Studies, 19,723 criminal aliens were released in 2015. Over 2,166 of those criminals were released because their home countries refused to take them back. A recent Boston Globe Investigation found that 30% of criminal aliens went on to commit more crimes after they were released.
Read more on this story at The Washington Times.
