[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16952]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TAKE THEM BACK HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, according to the Boston Globe, Qian Wu 
was beaten, choked, punched, and held at knifepoint by Chinese national 
Huang Chen. That was in 2006.
  Her attacker was sent to prison in Texas, supposedly never to be 
heard of again. Or so she thought. Four years later, Wu was sitting 
alone in her apartment when guess who shows up--the person who 
assaulted her to begin with--busting through her door. He reportedly 
said in a taunting voice, ``I bet you didn't expect to see me here.''
  Wu called the police, and Chen quickly fled the scene, but 2 weeks 
later, he returned to finish what began 4 years before. Chen beat Ms. 
Wu to death with a hammer, stabbed her with a knife, leaving her to die 
in her own pool of blood.
  Mr. Speaker, Ms. Wu's death did not have to occur. This crime could 
have actually been prevented. Chen should not have been back on the 
streets after serving time in prison, but he was, and here's why.
  After he had served his initial sentence for assaulting Ms. Wu, he 
was ordered legally deported back where he came from, back to China. 
But his home country, our good old buddies the Chinese, refused to take 
him back. They didn't want him. And so they stalled and stalled and 
stalled, and over those 3 years of Chinese stalling and giving the 
runaround, Chen was eventually freed--free to kill, and kill he did.
  Mr. Speaker, this tragedy is not an isolated phenomenon. 
Unfortunately, other Americans have died as a result of this gaping 
hole in the immigration system. It's no secret that everybody believes 
our immigration system is broken. Fixing it down the road will be 
complex and complicated. But there are some things that we can do about 
immigration right now to fix specific problems, and here's one.
  Currently, Mr. Speaker, thousands of criminal aliens are in our 
country, just like Chen, who have committed a crime and gone to prison. 
Our immigration system worked to order them deported, but their country 
won't take them back. They refuse to do so. So those countries stall 
and delay and eventually never take back their outlaws. So by law, 
after the person serves the time in our prisons, we can't keep them 
indefinitely waiting on their country to take them back, and so they 
are eventually released. These countries know that, and that's why they 
stall.
  Many of those criminals now are running around on American streets 
looking for more crime and up to malicious mischief.
  The blood of American victims are not only on the hands of the felons 
who commit these crimes from foreign countries, but they're also the 
fault of those countries that refuse to take back these criminal 
citizens.
  You know, the blood of Ms. Wu is on the hands of Chinese citizen 
Huang Chen, but it's also on the hands of the Chinese bureaucrats that 
would not take Chen back. Oh, Mr. Speaker, they may wear white gloves 
because they weren't the direct killer of Ms. Wu, but their delay 
allowed for that crime to be committed. And below those white gloves 
are the blood of this citizen who was killed in this country.
  And it's not just China committing these acts of not taking back 
lawfully deported individuals; there are numerous countries. Vietnam, 
Jamaica, Pakistan, and Cuba are just a few.
  So what should we do? Well, Mr. Speaker, there's already a law to 
require that there be some sanctions against these countries that 
refuse to take back their lawfully deported aliens, but the State 
Department doesn't enforce the law. The State Department says, well, we 
want to work diplomatically to get these people sent back. We don't 
want to require any sanctions. And so they talk and they talk and they 
talk. Meanwhile, more crimes are being committed by these people who 
are released, who should have been sent home, while the State 
Department continues to talk. Like my grandfather used to say: When all 
is said and done, more is said than done.
  We need to get these people out of our country who have been lawfully 
deported. These countries need to take them back, or there ought to be 
a consequence.
  I've introduced legislation that removes the uncertainty and the weak 
knees of bureaucrats and requires the State Department to follow 
through with visa sanctions against the countries that won't take back 
their lawfully deported criminals. I repeat, those visa sanctions 
should be primarily against, first, diplomats from these countries when 
they don't take back these individuals.

                              {time}  1040

  It's time to play a little bit of diplomatic hard ball with these 
nations. After all, Americans are dying because these criminals are 
illegally on the streets and our Nation does not insist on them being 
taken back.
  It's time to make these crooks and misfits the problem of their home 
country, rather than continue to remain our problem. Otherwise, more 
Americans are going to die.
  It's time to play a little hard ball with these countries.
  And that's just the way it is.

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