U.S. Worsens Mexican Violence by Returning Criminal Aliens to Border Cities, Mayors Say
May 25, 2010: Shackled Mexican immigrants ride in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus for deportation inHarlingen, Texas.
A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have beenconvicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, sayingthe deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence.
The request was made at a recent San Diego conference in which the mayors of four Mexican border cities and oneU.S. mayor, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, gathered to discusscross-border issues.
Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes blamed U.S. deportation policy for contributing to his city's violence, saying thatof the 80,000 people deported to Juarez in the past three years, 28,000had U.S. criminal records -- including 7,000 convicted rapists and 2,000convicted murderers.
Those criminal deportees, he said, have contributed to the violence in Juarez, which has reported more than2,200 murders this year. Reyes and the other Mexican mayors said thatwhen the U.S. deports criminals back to Mexico, it should fly them totheir hometowns, not just bus them to the border.
But critics in America say the Mexican lawmakers are simply trying to pass the buck to the U.S. and itstaxpayers. They say the Mexicans should take responsibility for theircriminals, who are putting both Mexican and American lives in danger.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transports a majority of Mexican criminal aliens back to Mexico onbuses. Since they're often held in U.S. detention centers near theborder prior to deportation, busing them to Mexican border cities ismuch less expensive than flying them to the interior of the country.
Those convicted of crimes in the U.S. are required first to fulfill "any sentence imposed by the U.S. courts," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice told FoxNews.com.
She said all of the deportees are then inspected by Mexican immigration authorities when they arrive in Mexico,and if they are wanted for crimes in Mexico, they are also met byrepresentatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office.
But if they don't have charges pending against them in Mexico, they are free men and women once they cross theborder regardless of what they have done in the U.S.
Despite that, ICE says it recognizes the threat posed by Mexico's cartel-related crime and has been workingclosely with Mexican authorities to address it.
"Earlier this year, ICE suspended the removal of Mexican nationals with criminal records to Ciudad Juarez,"Kice said. "…In addition to dedicating unprecedented manpower,technology and infrastructure resources to the border, ICE has alsocollaborated with Mexico to adapt its removal procedures in response tosafety considerations."
And while criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locations along the border, Kice said,"those removals are coordinated closely with Mexican authorities andadvance notification is provided prior to the return of convictedviolent offenders."
Juan Hernandez, founder of the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and formerdirector of Mexico's Presidential Office for Mexicans, says he's spokento the border city mayors, and they don't believe the U.S. is doingenough.
"Mexico believes that individuals who commit crimes in the United States should be prosecuted in the United Statesand not sent to Mexico to continue their performing of crimes," he toldFoxNews.com.
Critics of the Mexican lawmakers say the U.S. is prosecuting the criminals in question, and if Mexico wants to keep themout of its border towns, then it should be up to Mexico to lock them upor transport them elsewhere.
"It's almost perverse that foreign officials would blame us for sending their criminals back to their country.Sovereignty entails responsibility. This country needs to takeresponsibility for its own criminals, and other countries -- Mexicoincluded -- need to take responsibility for their own criminals and dealwith them," Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for AmericanImmigration Reform, told FoxNews.com.
But Hernandez, a dual citizen of both the U.S. and Mexico, says the U.S. can't wash its hands of this issue.
"The border will never totally be shut down because we don't want that to happen in the United States. Mexico is oursecond most important trading partner, there are close to one millionpeople crossing legally every day between Mexico and the United States,"Hernandez told FoxNews.com. "So we can be strict to the letter of thelaw and say these criminals are Mexico's problem, but it's not justtheir problem because it will come back to haunt the United States."
Melhman says in some cases it may be worth spending the extra time and money to fly criminals to the Mexicaninterior to lower the risk of them coming back over the border. But thatdecision, he says, needs to be made because it's deemed to be in thebest interest of the U.S., not because of pressure from Mexico.
"Every day, American citizens are victimized by illegal alien criminals because, for political reasons, ourgovernment refuses to enforce immigration laws," he said. "…We need toput resources into protecting our own interests and making sure violencedoesn't spread across our border."
Asked whether ICE planned to make any changes to its deportation policy since the conference, Kice simplysaid, "While ICE has suspended criminal alien removals to Cuidad Juarez,criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locationsalong the border and to the interior of the country."
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