Texas Representative, Henry Cuellar, claims that around 30 nations have refused to accept criminal immigrants being deported back to their countries from the US. The Texas Congressman says that, despite these nations failing to cooperate with the criminal deportations, the US continues to issue US visas to their citizens. He notes that the US is failing to enforce a law that could deny such US visas to countries refusing to repatriate criminal immigrants.
In an interview with Full Measure host, Sharyl Attkisson, Cuellar expressed his amazement that the law is not currently being enforced. He says he intends to go back to the House Committee on Appropriations, of which he is a Democratic member, and start having an impact on funding until enforcement of that law begins in earnest.
Cuellar also revealed that the Supreme Court has stated that undocumented immigrants arrested for crimes can only be held in custody for a short time before being released. This results in criminals being returned to communities because they will not be taken back by their own countries. Cuellar says he is entirely against this policy and, with a law already on the books in support of his stance, intends to try to change it.
Cuellar has broken with party leadership before on immigration issues and was a fierce critic of former President, Barack Obama. Cuellar acknowledges that sometimes diplomacy is the reason why the law is not enforced but feels that preventing convicted criminal immigrants from returning to US communities is more important.
