Bipartisan House bill that would penalize nations that block deportations gaining momentum
A bill with bipartisan support filed last year by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) is gaining some momentum in the final weeks of the 112th Congress and meetings to discuss the bill's provisions are scheduled for Friday. The bill would revoke diplomatic visas from nations that block criminal illegal aliens who are being deported from returning to their country.
More than 20 nations would be impacted if the legislation became law.
"The State Department doesn’t enforce the law," Poe said in a speech Wednesday on the House floor. "We need to get these people out of our country . . . and these countries need to take them back, or there ought to be a consequence."
If nations do not take back deported illegal aliens, ICE is forced to release them after 6 months bacause of a Supreme Court decision. The Poe legislation would require that the home countries allow entry to the illegal aliens within 90 days or risk losing diplomatic visas. China, Jamaica, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Cuba could be affected.
The bill has bipartisan support with even the Ranking Member of the House Immigration Subcommittee Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) working on the details.
"We’d like to actually get this done," Rep. Lofgren told the Boston Globe. "Believe me, that will be noticed, and that will hurt."
For more details, see the Boston Globe.