VTMBH Article: Body
Forget about it.
As Caribbean nations brace themselves for a heavier flow of criminal deportees from the United States next year, they have been told by the Bush Administration that Washington will not meet some of their key requests to reduce the number of people being kicked out of the country for breaking the law.
As a matter of fact, the White Houses message to the region is blunt and straightforward: dont expect any U.S. funds to help resettle criminal deportees, and forget about quick changes to U.S. immigration laws that would make it easier for families whose major breadwinners have been deported to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Antigua and a host of other countries in the region.
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has no mandate or funds to resettle criminal deportees in the Caribbean or elsewhere, was the blunt language the Bush Administration used to respond to a Caribbean proposal that the United States should set aside some of the assets it seized from criminals, in order to resettle deportees in their country of origin.
The proposal seeking financial help to resettle immigrants was put to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, by Jamaica, on behalf of CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) during a meeting with Caribbean foreign ministers almost a year ago in Nassau.
But the Bush Administration made it clear that it couldnt use seized assets in the way suggested by CARICOM.
The Department of Justice advises that asset forfeiture in the United States does not permit forfeited assets to be used for this purpose, was how Washington put it. The Department of Justice, however, does offer technical assistance and training programs to assist certain countries in writing and implementing their own asset forfeiture legislation.
According to the Bush Administration, if Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic and their neighbors have the appropriate legal mechanism that allowed monitoring of criminal aliens, then they could submit a proposal to the U.S. Embassy in their capitals, and Washington would consider providing help for a parole and monitoring system.
Acting for CARICOM, Jamaicas Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, K.D. Knight, suggested to Powell that the United States change the way criminal aliens were being deported to the Caribbean. For example, CARICOM proposed that the 1996 legislation of criminals should be changed so that the authorities could take into account the disruptive effects deportations were having on families and their home countries.
In addition, CARICOM called for an end to the mandatory deportations of persons convicted of misdemeanors.
In its response, the Bush Administration was quick to point out that all nations have an obligation to take back their nationals, pure and simple.
On top of that, U.S. law tied the hands of the INS when it came to exercising discretion on who should or shouldnt be deported.
At the present time, U.S. law clearly limits discretion by INS in suspending or canceling a removal, according to the state department.
While it didnt hold out much hope that the immigration laws, which ushered in the current wave of deportations, would be changed any time soon, the administration pointed out that several members of Congress, including Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative John Conyers, had introduced bills to ease the laws on immigrants who had long ties to the United States.
These bills are very much a work in progress, said the administration. There is no guarantee that Congress will enact them into law, or what might be provided in a final version even if enacted into law.
In fact, with the 107th Congress coming to an end, these bills have not yet been approved, and lawmakers would have to reintroduce them next year if they want to move forward on their proposals.
Between 1997 and July of this year, close to 25,000 criminal aliens have been deported to the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking nations and territories of the Caribbean.
More than 12,000 were sent to the Dominican Republic, at least 6,000 to Jamaica, about 1,800 to Haiti, more than 1,000 to Trinidad and Tobago, close to 800 to Guyana and almost 500 to the Bahamas.
Barbados and its Eastern Caribbean neighbors have received almost 1,000, and all of the countries expect the United States to deport even larger numbers of criminal aliens who have committed offenses, which include: murder, rape, gun and narcotics possession, burglary, sexual abuse of children, domestic violence and driving with a suspended license.
The INS has targeted 12,000 Jamaicans for deportation, according to an official in the Jamaican Embassy in Washington.
As Caribbean nations brace themselves for a heavier flow of criminal deportees from the United States next year, they have been told by the Bush Administration that Washington will not meet some of their key requests to reduce the number of people being kicked out of the country for breaking the law.
As a matter of fact, the White Houses message to the region is blunt and straightforward: dont expect any U.S. funds to help resettle criminal deportees, and forget about quick changes to U.S. immigration laws that would make it easier for families whose major breadwinners have been deported to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Antigua and a host of other countries in the region.
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has no mandate or funds to resettle criminal deportees in the Caribbean or elsewhere, was the blunt language the Bush Administration used to respond to a Caribbean proposal that the United States should set aside some of the assets it seized from criminals, in order to resettle deportees in their country of origin.
The proposal seeking financial help to resettle immigrants was put to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, by Jamaica, on behalf of CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) during a meeting with Caribbean foreign ministers almost a year ago in Nassau.
But the Bush Administration made it clear that it couldnt use seized assets in the way suggested by CARICOM.
The Department of Justice advises that asset forfeiture in the United States does not permit forfeited assets to be used for this purpose, was how Washington put it. The Department of Justice, however, does offer technical assistance and training programs to assist certain countries in writing and implementing their own asset forfeiture legislation.
According to the Bush Administration, if Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic and their neighbors have the appropriate legal mechanism that allowed monitoring of criminal aliens, then they could submit a proposal to the U.S. Embassy in their capitals, and Washington would consider providing help for a parole and monitoring system.
Acting for CARICOM, Jamaicas Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, K.D. Knight, suggested to Powell that the United States change the way criminal aliens were being deported to the Caribbean. For example, CARICOM proposed that the 1996 legislation of criminals should be changed so that the authorities could take into account the disruptive effects deportations were having on families and their home countries.
In addition, CARICOM called for an end to the mandatory deportations of persons convicted of misdemeanors.
In its response, the Bush Administration was quick to point out that all nations have an obligation to take back their nationals, pure and simple.
On top of that, U.S. law tied the hands of the INS when it came to exercising discretion on who should or shouldnt be deported.
At the present time, U.S. law clearly limits discretion by INS in suspending or canceling a removal, according to the state department.
While it didnt hold out much hope that the immigration laws, which ushered in the current wave of deportations, would be changed any time soon, the administration pointed out that several members of Congress, including Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative John Conyers, had introduced bills to ease the laws on immigrants who had long ties to the United States.
These bills are very much a work in progress, said the administration. There is no guarantee that Congress will enact them into law, or what might be provided in a final version even if enacted into law.
In fact, with the 107th Congress coming to an end, these bills have not yet been approved, and lawmakers would have to reintroduce them next year if they want to move forward on their proposals.
Between 1997 and July of this year, close to 25,000 criminal aliens have been deported to the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking nations and territories of the Caribbean.
More than 12,000 were sent to the Dominican Republic, at least 6,000 to Jamaica, about 1,800 to Haiti, more than 1,000 to Trinidad and Tobago, close to 800 to Guyana and almost 500 to the Bahamas.
Barbados and its Eastern Caribbean neighbors have received almost 1,000, and all of the countries expect the United States to deport even larger numbers of criminal aliens who have committed offenses, which include: murder, rape, gun and narcotics possession, burglary, sexual abuse of children, domestic violence and driving with a suspended license.
The INS has targeted 12,000 Jamaicans for deportation, according to an official in the Jamaican Embassy in Washington.