India in the list of nations who refuse to take back illegal immigrants: Grassley.
AB Wire
The Republican Senator from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, has come up with an only-once-before-used method to ‘punish’ so-called recalcitrant countries, which includes India – those who allegedly refuse to take back illegal immigrants caught by the Department of Homeland Security: stop issuing any kind of visas, including Green Cards, H-1B, F-1 student and visitor visas.
Grassley is not exactly on the same lines as his more famous Republican Party member Donald Trump, who has proposed a ban on visas on all countries who have terrorist links, but his declaration is a highly controversial one, especially since the list of countries he is proposing to introduce this ban includes India, one of the key allies of the US.
Grassley wants to discontinue issuing immigrant and non-immigrant visas to citizens from 23 countries, including India and China, while alleging them of being non-cooperative in taking back illegal immigrants.
“Dangerous criminals, including murderers, are being released every day because their home countries will not cooperate in taking them back,” Grassley wrote in a letter to the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
In fiscal year 2015 alone, 2,166 individuals were released in the US because of this decision by recalcitrant countries who refuse to take back their nationals, Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, said. He added that more than 6,100 were released in the preceding two years.
Currently, the top five recalcitrant countries are Cuba, China, Somalia, India, and Ghana, Grassley said.
In addition, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is monitoring another 62 nations where cooperation is strained, but which are not yet deemed recalcitrant.
In the letter to Johnson, Grassley reminded him that Congress addressed this problem when it enacted section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“Under section 243(d), the Secretary of State is required to discontinue granting immigrant or non-immigrant visas to a country upon receiving notice from you that the country has denied or is unreasonably delaying accepting a citizen, subject, national or resident of that country,” he said.
He added: “This tool has been used only once, in the case of Guyana in 2001, where it had an immediate effect, resulting in obtaining cooperation from Guyana within two months.”