[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16073-16074]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        DEPORT FOREIGN CRIMINALS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there's been a lot of talk about 
immigration, border security and all of the problems in between. But 
let's talk about one part of the immigration issue that has maybe 
slipped through the cracks and we don't hear much about it. There are 
some illegals in the United States that are just criminals. They have 
been convicted of crimes from everything from stealing to killing, 
including rape, robbery and murder.
  The Bureau of Prisons says that 27 percent of all the prisoners in 
Federal prisons are foreign nationals that are illegally in the United 
States. That's astonishing, that over 25 percent of our Federal prisons 
house illegals, all at the expense of Americans. These criminals serve 
their sentence in one of our State or Federal prisons. Then after they 
serve that sentence and they are ordered deported, here's what happens: 
many of their native countries refuse to take back their deported 
criminals.

                              {time}  1040

  Why would they take them back? They've got enough criminals of their 
own.
  Since they won't take back all of their own citizens that are 
convicted criminals after they serve their sentence, that nation tries 
to pawn off the remainder on the United States. These thugs get a get-
out-of-jail-free card in the United States because we do not 
permanently detain them in jail after they have been ordered deported 
and their country of origin refuses to take them. That means that they 
are released on the American streets. They are criminals without a 
country.
  So how many people are we talking about? Well, according to an ICE 
report earlier this year, we're talking about 138,000 illegal aliens 
who are pending deportation--either in jail or out on the streets. Some 
of these are never taken back to their home countries.
  Now, who are these offending nations? Well, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, 
and, yes, China. Our good buddies the Chinese are the second worst 
offenders, with 35,000 convicted criminals pending deportation. Imagine 
that--Chinese criminals in the United States. Who would have thought?
  Well, we already have a law on the books that says that the 
Department of Homeland Security is supposed to report to the Secretary 
of State any countries that do not accept or unreasonably delay taking 
their citizens back. Then the Secretary of State is supposed to 
discontinue granting visas to citizens of that country. That sounds 
good, but the problem is Homeland Security doesn't always enforce the 
rule of law. Homeland Security has the obligation to follow the law and 
ship these criminals back to where they belong. It's simple: If you 
come to the United States illegally and commit a felony, you go home 
after you are lawfully deported.
  It's time we offer a proper incentive for these uncooperative 
nations--like China--who freely take money from us--like our debt--and 
turn around and disrespect our laws. There needs to be a punishment for 
any nation that refuses to take back lawfully deported criminal aliens. 
We should not be issuing visas to diplomats of other nations that 
refuse to cooperate with our government. There should be consequences 
for countries whose citizens illegally enter the United States, harm 
our citizens, go to prison, and the host country disrespects the law of 
the United States and doesn't take back their malcontent citizens.
  So how do we make sure that these disrespectful foreign governments 
take back their citizens? Today, I introduced the Deport Convicted 
Foreign Criminals Act. This bill is simple. First, if a country does 
not take back their criminal aliens after 90 days of being given proper 
legal notice, diplomatic visas will be withheld. Then, if the country 
still refuses to take back their criminals, these sanctions will be 
expanded to include other types of visas.
  Our government needs to be more concerned about the rule of law, the 
security of our Nation, and the cost to the American taxpayer than it 
is about hurting the feelings of some foreign country. Immigration is a 
complicated issue. But this part is simple. Foreign convicted criminals 
need to go back home. Their homeland should take them whether they want 
them or not. The United States cannot be a halfway house for foreign 
criminals.
  And that's just the way it is.

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