Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany Pushes Bill to Expand Deportations

Republican legislator Tom Tiffany (R-WI) has drafted a House bill that would help penalize countries — including China — that refuse to cooperate with court-ordered deportations from the United States.

“For years, Beijing has impeded our ability to send their criminal aliens home – effectively treating our country as a dumping ground for their nationals who break American laws,” Tiffany said in a press statement. “It makes no sense to continue granting visas to citizens of Communist China knowing that we may never be able to remove them should they overstay or commit crimes in our communities,”

Tiffany’s bill is titled the Alien Criminal Expulsion Act or “ACE Act.” It would allow the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily deny visas to government officials, tourists, visa workers, would-be immigrants, and business executives from “recalcitrant” countries.

Under current rules, the Secretary of State has the authority to deny visas. But the department’s officials rarely use their power against recalcitrant countries. They do not think the gains for Americans are worth the disruption to their department’s plans that are caused by opposition from U.S. businesses and foreign countries.

The “recalcitrant” term is used to legally classify the foreign nations whose governments refuse to accept the return of their deported citizens who have committed crimes or overstayed visas. When the recalcitrant home countries refuse to accept their citizens, their migrants are released to take U.S. jobs, and their criminals are released once their U.S. prison terms end.

Many foreign criminals are loose in the United States. A 2015 statement from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) noted that “One hundred twenty-one convicted criminals who faced deportation orders between 2010 and 2014 were never removed from the country and now face murder charges.”

These countries include China, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea, Hong Kong, Iran, Laos, Morocco, South Sudan, and Vietnam.

In August, China announced it would continue to block the return of deported Chinese people. The statement was touted as retaliation for the visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi. (D-CA).

President Joe Biden’s deputies also exploit the foreign countries’ lack of cooperation to maximize the flow of migrants into the United States. For example, Biden’s border officials are welcoming hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans — regardless of the Title 42 border barrier — because those countries refuse to accept their deported citizens.

Tiffany’s bill is one of several that ambitious GOP reformers hope to pass in 2023 — if the GOP gains a majority in the House.

The GOP’s leadership is dominated by pro-migration business interests, so the pro-American reforms pushed by Tiffany and other GOP reforms will have a tough hill to climb.

An early clue to the bill’s face will be the list of committee memberships and chairmanships that will be announced after the election by GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). If McCarthy puts GOP populist reformers in important slots — the judiciary committee, and the homeland defense committee — the bill’s chances are improved.

So far, GOP leaders have been slow to adopt draft immigration reforms — but they have accepted a consensus list of 2023 changes promoted by immigration reform groups.