Three bipartisan U.S. senators, including Texas senator John Cornyn, have introduced the Remedies for Refusal of Repatriation Act. “Casey’s Law” is named for a young woman who was murdered by a Haitian criminal illegal alien. He was in the country because he had not been deported after he was released from prison.
According to a statement obtained from Senator Cornyn’s office, “Casey’s Law would establish clear criteria to identify and hold accountable countries that systematically refuse or delay the repatriation of their citizens who have been convicted of a violent crime, or who pose a threat to public safety.”
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), have introduced the Act.
“Illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes should not be left on our streets, and if other countries won’t cooperate in taking them back there should be consequences,” Sen. Cornyn said. “I thank Senator Blumenthal for working with me to address this ongoing problem and keep our country safe from dangerous individuals who shouldn’t be here.”
The Remedies for Refusal of Repatriation Act, or “Casey’s Law”, ensures that when countries put the safety and security of American citizens at risk by refusing to accept deported criminals, these countries will be held accountable.
According to the statement from Senator Cornyn’s office, “The bill would require that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish procedures to determine whether a foreign country systematically and unreasonably refuses or delays the repatriation of nationals who are in the United States, and have been convicted of a felony or crime of violence, or are a threat to national security or public safety. Once it has been established that a country meets this criteria, DHS and the State Department would then notify their government that the United States may deny visas to their citizens.”
DHS and the State would put information on their website to publicize which countries systematically refuse and delay repatriation of their citizens.
The legislation also requires an annual report to Congress detailing the countries that engage in this behavior, and it would also describe the actions taken by those agencies in response.
Casey Chadwick was a 25-year-old woman from Connecticut who was killed by a criminal illegal alien in 2015. The accused murderer, Jean Jacques, had already been in prison for 17 years for attempted murder of another victim. Her body was found stuffed in a closet. Haiti previously refused to take him back into that country.
Breitbart Texas previously reported that a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) study revealed that nearly one million illegal aliens are ignoring deportation orders from immigration courts. Nearly 200,000 of those are convicted criminals.
“The fact that almost 10 percent of the illegal resident population has already been ordered removed and is still here illustrates just how dysfunctional our immigration enforcement system is. It also should be of great concern that twenty percent of them are convicted criminals, and that most of these are at large in our communities,” CIS Policy Studies Director Jessica Vaughn told the Washington Times. Vaughn’s comments were based on a report released by the CIS on June 30. The report reveals that 925,193 illegal aliens have remained in the United States after being ordered to leave the country. Of those, 179,040 are convicted criminals who were ordered deported. Only 11,373 of those ordered deported have been detained.
Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) reintroduced H.R. 583, the Timely Repatriation Act of 2015, in January of 2015. The purpose of the Act is to restrict diplomatic visas to countries that deny or unreasonably delay the repatriation of a national that has been ordered removed from the United States. “This is one aspect of Border Security and National Security that has unfortunately slipped through the cracks,” said Rep. Poe at that time. “We give convicted foreign criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card to live in the United States because we cannot permanently detain them and their countries of origin refuse to take them back. This is a dangerous and deadly Achilles heel in our immigration system. It is time that we offer a proper incentive to these uncooperative nations who freely take our money, and turn around and disrespect our laws. We should not be issuing diplomatic VISA’s to nations that refuse to cooperate with our government. Keeping their criminals here is endangering our citizens.” The bill was assigned to a congressional committee on January 28, 2015 but has not advanced to the House or Senate as a whole.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.