The State Department puts foreign relations ahead of the safety of American citizens with respect to immigration laws, according to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) who chairs the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform. The committee listened to testimony from State Department officials on Wednesday on the agency's use of a rarely used provision that's been around since 1952, allowing it to deny visas to countries that refuse to repatriate criminal aliens with deportation orders. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have released more than 8,000 criminal aliens with deportation orders since 2013 because their home countries wouldn't take them back.
"You're so worried about playing nice instead of implementing the law, these people are committing more crimes," Rep. Chaffetz said. "Everything from murder, to DUIs, to sexual abuse. Get rid of them."
The 2001 Supreme Court case, Zadvydas v. Davis, limits the amount of time to six months that ICE can hold an illegal alien, even if they've been ordered deported. ICE is forced to release criminal aliens onto the streets when the aliens home country refuses or delays the alien's repatriation. Although, criminal aliens who have been released because their home countries won't take them back is only a small portion of the total number of criminal aliens released onto the streets by ICE. Of the 86,288 aliens who have been released since 2013, only 8,275 were released because of the Supreme Court's decision. More attention has been brought to the issue, however, after a criminal alien from Peru was released because his home country wouldn't take him back and he then went on to kill a Connecticut resident earlier this year.
"[I]t's not unreasonable to say that if someone comes into the country illegally and then gets convicted of attempted murder, that it should be a very high priority of the government to get that person out of our country," said Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the U.S. can deny visas to countries who refuse to take back their nationals. According to a report in the Washington Times, it's only been done once in recent years when the George W. Bush Administration denied certain visas to Guyana.
Former Ambassador and current State Dept. official Michele Thoren Bond said denying visas to countries that won't repatriate their nationals can be a useful tool, but also said that there are other options State can use.
