Speech #1100143297

Over 18.000 of them are convicted criminals who have been released back into U.S. society. Secretary Chertoff testified this week that his counterparts in Europe are facing similar problems repatriating dangerous aliens. We must increase the pressure on foreign countries to take back the aliens that have been ordered deported. The Supreme Court in two casesZadvydas v. Davis and Clark v. Martinezadopted a presumption that it is only reasonable to continue to detain aliens ordered to be deported for up to 6 months. So at the end of that time. If the home country steadfastly refuses to repatriate. we are forced to release them. This is of obvious concern to the citizens of this country. who are put at risk by criminal aliens who are released. In Pennsylvania. there are 700 to 1.000 undocumented criminal aliens that could end up out on our streets If their home countries refuse to take them back when we try to deport them. The recidivism rate among this population is extremely high. Studies show that the average criminal illegal alien was rearrested an estimated six to eight timesmost often for drug crimes. robbery and assault. and. to a lesser degree. for murder and sexual offenses. Moreover. not only does refusal to repatriate often put convicted criminals with no right to be here out on the street. but drawnout repatriation negotiations divert scarce Federal resources away from identifying and deporting other criminal aliens. Therefore. this bill imposes sanctions on countries that refuse to repatriate aliens who have been ordered deported. First. the bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress every 90 days on the countries which refuse or inhibit repatriation. The receipt of this report automatically triggers denial of foreign aid as well as suspension of visa issuances to the listed noncooperative countries. This will send a clear signal to those countries unwilling to take responsibility for their citizens that they will no longer benefit from U.S. largessin the form of money and visas. It also grants standing to enforce the bill to victims of crimes committed by nonrepatriated criminal aliens. Current law. which gives the administration discretion to deny visas to uncooperative countries. has been sorely underutilized. This bill eliminates such discretion. Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act directs the State Department not to issue visas to nationals of countries identified by the Attorney Generalnow the Secretary of Homeland Securityas countries that deny or delay repatriation. Congressional intent was clear. and the remedy was potent when applied against Guyana several years ago. However. the Congressional Research Service has not identified any other Instance in which Homeland Security elected to issue the triggering notification to the State Department.