All foreign aid should come under strict review by the Trump Administration. Aid to those countries who openly denigrate the U.S., or have policies adverse to American interests, should be cut off immediately.
A proposed law that would punish countries that refuse to take back their illegal immigrant criminals is two years too late to save Casey Chadwick, but the Texas congressman behind it figures it’s the least Washington can do.
Chadwick was murdered in 2015 by Jean Jacques, an illegal immigrant from Haiti and one of thousands freed onto U.S. streets each year after they serve prison time because their homelands refuse deportation. But a proposal by Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, the Criminal Alien Deportation Enforcement Act, would force such countries to take back their citizens or risk losing foreign aid and travel visa privileges.
“The problem is hundreds of Americans are being robbed, assaulted, raped or murdered every year by criminal aliens who are then released back onto the streets because their countries of origins refuse to take them back,” Babin said. “I have personally met with a number of these victims, or if the victim is deceased, I have met with their families. It is heart-wrenching.”
Chadwick’s case is among the most egregious, Babin said. Jacques was sentenced to 60 years in prison last year for stabbing Chadwick, 25, to death in her Norwich apartment. The killer had been in the U.S. illegally since 1992, had already spent 17 years in prison for attempted murder and possession of a firearm without a permit.
He was not deported after serving time, but it was not for lack of U.S. effort. Jacques was listed as a passenger on three charter flights to Haiti in June, August and October of 2012, but each time the Haitian government refused to repatriate him.
A 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Zadvydas v. Davis, held that illegal immigrants ticketed for deportation but unaccepted by their home countries cannot be detained indefinitely. Jacques was held for 205 days, but ultimately freed less than six months before he killed Chadwick.
“For the sake of Casey and thousands of other Americans who have been victimized, it is time we start putting the safety of our citizens first and stop this revolving door that is allowing dangerous criminals who should be deported back onto our streets,” Babin said.
A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in April documented that since 2013, 86,288 illegal immigrants have committed 231,074 crimes after being released from prison. Many of those illegal immigrants are ultimately deported, but some 2,166 who had served their time for various crimes were released last year when their home countries refused to take them back.