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HONORABLE CHARLES B. RANGEL
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2007

THREATS TO U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY: DEPORTATION POLICIES THAT FORCE FAMILIES APART

Mr. RANGEL: Madam Speaker, conversations on this very important topic are necessary to recognize the consequences of criminally convicted U.S. residents deported to Latin America and the Caribbean. I commend Chairman Engel for taking an interest and exploring the challenges that our deportation policies have imposed on the region. I look forward to working with you and the Committee, as you examine this issue.

Recently, the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) visited the U.S. Congress. They spoke with several members and met with committees regarding the issues affecting the region. One major concern for them is the impact of thousands of criminally convicted deportees from the United States to the nations of the Caribbean. At times these individuals are repatriated without notice to the receiving country, regardless of the impact their arrival will have upon the societies to which they are being sent. The adverse impact of this practice is not only felt in the Caribbean, but in our communities as well, due to the financial burden it places on the families left behind without means of support.

The CARICOM members are not asking for a change in the policy, but adjustment to how it is executed. The CARlCOM members understand that residence permits are a privilege granted to non-citizens contingent on their good behavior. Clearly, the commission of a crime does not constitute good behavior. However, mothers and fathers are being separated from their families without making the appropriate provisions for the welfare of children who remain in our country. Those repatriated sometimes have no support units in their country of citizenship and are forced into a life of poverty, as well as stigmatized for being deported. In addition, the families they leave behind are left with huge legal bills or in situations where they have to fend off poverty. It is my contention that poverty is a threat to the national security of the United States.

The Human Rights Watch in their July 2007 Report entitled ``Forced Apart Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy,'' stated that since 1996 approximately 1.6 million families have been torn apart by the U.S. deportation policies. The top ten countries of origin for non-citizens removed on criminal grounds represent Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico being the most affected of these nations; with over 500,000 Mexican nationals being repatriaed between FY 1997 and FY 2005. Haiti, the poorest nation in our hemisphere, is among the top ten with over 3,000 individuals being returned to that nation. Many parents explained that their children, the vast majority of whom had been left in the deporting country, faced extreme hardships, both emotionally and financially. These are American children that are forced into situations where they have to abandon school to support their families. These are American children sometimes forced to live in single-parent households or households without a parent. Ushered into a life of poverty. Poverty not only pricks our conscience, but itshortchanges our future as well. Society ultimately pays for poverty through a less productive workforce; more crime, higher use of welfare, greater drug addiction and other social ills.

We need to support initiatives to integrate repatriated individuals into their new society. Often they have spent their entire life in the United States and lack a support system in the receiving country. Recommendations that need to be explored include funding to expand or establish resettlement programs. These programs should be geared to setting up transition centers where individuals are afforded basic resources such as food, clothing and shelter. Job training programs and social service type institutions need to be reinforced in the region, since upon deportation, many of them drift into homelessness, and with no job prospects, they end up doing crime as a means of survival.

There needs to be the creation of a system to track and monitor high-risk criminal deportees. In some situations criminals are repatriated and no formal processing takes place in the receiving country. In essence they are let loose into the community and there are no systems in place to track their movement in the receiving country. It is believed that there is a correlation between the increase in gang related activity in the region and deportees. These individuals often make their way back into the U.S. or form part of trans-national organized crime units.

I am glad to see that this hearing has been convened to explore ways this Congress can help our neighbors in the Region address this issue. Failing to properly reintegrating repatriated individuals is a challenge that negatively impacts our neighbors and threatens our national security.