TodaySpecter offers crime deportation legislation
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Article RatingA visit last month to the state prison at Camp Hill at least partly prompted U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s latest legislation: the Accountability in Immigration Repatriation Act of 2008.
Introduced Wednesday, the legislation would impose sanctions on countries that refuse to take back aliens who have been convicted of crimes in the United States and other aliens who are under a final order of removal.
As of Feb. 11, eight countries are refusing to accept more than 139,000 aliens. More than 18,000 of them are convicted criminals who have been released back onto U.S. streets, Specter noted, adding that a recidivism rates show that they are likely to commit as many as eight additional crimes.
A former Philadelphia district attorney, Specter was briefed on aggravated felon Abdel Fattah while visiting SCI-Camp Hill Feb. 8. An Egyptian, Fattah has served his minimum sentence and is now eligible for repatriation. His delayed deportation cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $250,000 last year, Specter said.
Fattah has long been a problem inmate for SCI-Camp Hill — as well as state prisons in Waymart and Greene — engaging in hunger strikes that forced the prison to file a lawsuit to force feed him. In 2003, Fattah set a mattress on fire in his cell.
The senator sent a letter Wednesday to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asking for the country’s cooperation in Fattah’s repatriation.
“Streamlining the deportation process and insisting that countries repatriate illegal aliens who have been convicted of crimes of violence will free substantial Immigration and Customs Enforcement resources, which can then be devoted to improving identification and reporting of deportable criminal aliens in federal, state or local custody,” Specter said. “My proposal works to stop criminal aliens from being released onto our streets and helps to close the government’s credibility gap on immigration enforcement.”
In Pennsylvania, there are 700 to 1,000 undocumented criminal aliens who could be released back into the general population if their home countries refuse to take them back.
Specter’s bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress every 90 days on the countries that refuse or inhibit repatriation.
Receipt of the report would automatically trigger denial of certain foreign aid as well as suspension of visa issuances to the listed countries. The bill puts the burden on the administration to request and justify an exception from Congress.
