Should Countries That Refuse to Repatriate Citizens Deported From the U.S. Face Visa Restrictions? (H.R. 241)

What is H.R. 241?

(Updated May 25, 2018)

This bill would direct the Dept. of Homeland Security to publish a report every six months listing countries that refuse or unreasonably delay the repatriation of their citizens who are deported from the U.S. and punish them by denying visas for personal employees of national officials and reduce the number of visas available to the country’s diplomats.

The report would be published every six months and include:

• Countries that have refused or unreasonably delayed repatriation of a citizen of that country and the total number of such persons, and countries that have excessive repatriation failure rates.

• Each country that was included in both the current report and the one preceding it, although DHS could exclude a country if the total number of non-repatriations outstanding is less than 10 for the preceding three year period.

For each country listed in the report, he State Department would be authorized to:

• Not issue visas to attendants, servants, and personal employees of such country’s officials and employees who receive such nonimmigrant status;

• Reduce the number of visas available for the country’s diplomats and officials/employees by 10 percent for each six months that a country is listed.

Argument in favor

Countries that won’t repatriate their citizens when they’re deported from the U.S. should face repercussions in terms of visas issued to their diplomats or assistants to government officials.

Argument opposed

Restricting diplomatic visas to countries that deny or unreasonably delay the repatriation of one of their citizens is deported from the U.S. won’t force them to change their behavior.

Impact

Foreign nationals whose countries don’t repatriate them; diplomats, officials and their assistants who could face visa restrictions; foreign governments; the State Dept.; and DHS.

Cost of H.R. 241

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced this bill to restrict diplomatic visas to countries that deny or unreasonably delay the repatriation of a person deported from the U.S.:

“The United States can no longer afford to give convicted foreign criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card. The safety of our own citizens is at stake.  The issue is that we cannot permanently detain criminals and their countries of origin refuse to take them back. It is time we make them. This is a dangerous and deadly hole in our immigration system. Our government must offer a proper incentive to these uncooperative nations who freely take our money, and turn around and disrespect our laws.  We should not be issuing diplomatic VISA’s to nations that refuse to cooperate with our government. Keeping their criminals here is endangering our own citizens.”

This legislation has the support of 16 Republican cosponsors in the House.

Of Note: In August 2017 the Trump administration sanctioned four countries — Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone — for being “recalcitrant” in repatriating their citizens who were deported from the U.S.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) Press Release
  
• Law 360 (Previous Version)
  
• Center for Immigration Studies (Previous Version - In Favor)
  
• NumbersUSA (Previous Version - In Favor)