Chertoff: China Won't Take Back Deportees By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Mar 14, 5:43 PM ET

China is refusing to take back an estimated 39,000 citizens who have been denied immigration to the United States and have clogged detention centers at federal expense, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said that China last year readmitted 800 people. But that made only a small dent in what he described as a backlog of thousands illegally in the U.S.

"The math is pretty easy — at that rate, we wind up with increasing numbers of migrants who, if we're going to detain them, we're going to have to house at enormous expense," Chertoff said.

He added: "We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a call for comment.

Currently, 687 Chinese are being held in federal detention facilities, at a daily rate of $95 each, while some 38,000 have been released on bond or under a monitoring program, such as wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet, the Homeland Security Department said later Tuesday.

Illegal immigrants can be held for 180 days before they are released.

Chertoff also said Homeland Security would open detention facilities in the next few weeks to house entire families of illegal immigrants who hope to bring their children along in order to avoid jail time. "It'll be humane, but we're not going to let people get away with this," he said.

Chertoff's remarks comes as the Homeland Security Department aims to end its "catch and release" immigration policy by Oct. 1. After that date, all illegal immigrants will be held in U.S. detention centers until they can be returned to their nation of citizenry.

Over the last five years, Homeland Security has deported more than 2,580 Chinese nationals, department data show. Though other nations also are refusing to take back citizens who have been denied U.S. immigration, Chertoff refused to name them Tuesday, noting that the number of stranded citizens from China far outpace those from other counties.

Chertoff visits China, Japan and Singapore at the month's end. He said financial decisions and a cumbersome process may contribute to China's reluctance to take back its citizens, but also "I think sometimes maybe it's a low priority."

"But they've got to understand it's a high priority for us," he said.

Speaking earlier to the National League of Cities, Chertoff made a veiled reference to recent criticism aimed at him for his department's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina. Though some lawmakers have called on Chertoff to resign, or said he should be fired, the White House has repeatedly maintained its support for him.

"People used to say to me, 'Why would you want to give up a lifetime job in order to take this job?'" said Chertoff, who was a federal appeals court judge until he was confirmed last year as the nation's second homeland security chief. "And I didn't realize until a couple weeks ago that really, every year in this job is a lifetime. So in that sense, maybe I've traded up."

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I say sell them to the highest bidder for slavery. thoughts?

 

It will be a glorious day when this world rids its self of HD

 

What do you do with them then?

 

Somebody needs to rip your ***** off so that you cannot pollute the earth.

 

Yeah from what i understand idiots do tend to feel intimidated by those who possess what they dont.. INTELLECT

so your reaction doesnt surprise me much, glad you could peice together those words to form a thought. Man software and training for the mentaly impaired sure has come along way!

 

Ok Dr3, seriously. The U.S. Govt is proposing that Mexican Illegals earn their right to stay in this country... em isn't that a form of slavery (indentured servitude)? So if Mexican grunts pick enough cotton or lettuce they become citizens? Yep, something like that. So when I talk about enslaving a population, it isn't that far-fetched.

Think of it as politically-correct slavery!

Now I'm really sorry you have an inferiority complex that compels you to personal attacks of my intellect, but with a name like Helladumb, do you think that's going to work on me? HAHAHAHAHA

 

how is that any different then an h1b?


and china firmly adheres to the death by a million cuts

 

Eh, folks on h1b don't have to slave in fields all day, having to wipe there own *ss with lettuce. The average h1b recipient was crapping in fields back in their own country . Now they come to Corporate America and join the "no hand-washers club," spreading feces to all public door ***** and break-room vending machines .

 

1) They're probably not professionals (especially the hispanic farm workers).
2) They're just going to send a fair amount of that money back to the country they came from.
3) This is costing us many unnecessary American Tax Dollars every day.
4) This shows how LITTLE the Chinese Gov't cares about its citizens.

I think it's terrible that they would do that to their citizens.

 

let me point out an irony here:

There are some people in this forum who advocate strict border policies, enforcement, etc... They gripe about illegal immigration issues being the bane of our society.

Now, you have a country that will not take people back who left their country illegally. They are adhering to their strict border policies and enforcing them. So why the gripe?

I personally think that what China is doing is unethical, just as the proposed American laws to punish people who help "illegals" is unethical.

 

Wait, so either China takes them back or they are put into slavery? You can join HD on your little lemming assault on the coast. Cheers

 

Damn you liberals are intolerant, when did I say enslave them? I just asked what the **** you do with them? Which nobody seems to have an answer for.

I think you guys (liberals) have me all wrong. We probably have more in common than you think.

 

Uh I have an answer. Give them work visas that require they all get jobs in 3 month or less, or face deportation to the country of the US governments choosing. Very simple.

 

You had me until here...

And what if they rightfully refuse to take them?

 

Then we find other countries that will. We have a lot of allies that do not have a problem with overpopulation.