ICE blasted by federal report over deportation failure

An undocumented immigrant who stabbed to death a young woman from Connecticut after having previously been sent to prison for attempted murder would not have been in the United States to commit the crime if a better job had been made of deporting him by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a scathing report issued this week by a government watchdog.

Earlier this month Jean Jacques, a Haitian national, was given 60 years in prison for his murder of 25 year old Casey Chadwick in her apartment in Norwich last year. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, which at the request of three lawmakers in Connecticut examined the circumstances leading up to the murder, concluded that Jacques should have been removed from the United States long before the crime took place.

The report found that personalized follow-ups with undocumented immigrants are impossible for Deportation Officers at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to the caseloads they are dealing with, pointing out that at one office 37,000 undocumented immigrants released from prison had to be handled by just four officers. In the case of Jacques, he was released after 205 days after Haiti denied he was a citizen, refusing entry to him on three occasions of attempted deportation, and refusing to allow his birth certificate to be obtained by US officials.

However, the report claims that Jacque could still have been tracked by ICE with GPS. The results of the investigation have been called “alarming” by Democratic Representative Joe Courtney and Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal.