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Opening Statement, Ranking Member Dan Burton
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Committee on Foreign Affairs
July 18, 2007
US- Latin American Deportation Issues

To begin, I would like to thank the Chairman for holding today's hearing on this complex issue. The integration of deportees into their state of origin is important to both the stability of the home country and the safety of U.S. citizens. Immigrants that enter illegally or conduct illegal business within the United States are often associated with gangs or drug activity. It is important to note that these activities are not beneficial to any society; therefore the deportation of criminals must not end at the airport in the criminal's country of origin. Working together to combat the growing trend of unemployed, un-integrated deportees that often find their way right back to the U.S. is the only way to truly impact the unsatisfactory status quo.

First, relationships between the United States and Central American and Caribbean countries rest upon the state of US deportation policy. Central American and Caribbean countries claim that one of their top domestic concerns is the heavy flow of deportation traffic arriving to them from the United States. In fiscal year 2004 alone, 5.6% of deportable aliens within the US were from the Caribbean or Central America, with 26,555 from Honduras, 19,180 from El Salvador, and 14,288 from Guatemala. Since American immigration officials show immediate concern for criminal cases over other deportation cases, many of the deportees have criminal backgrounds; therefore they pose a serious problem for their country's security concerns. Given these immense numbers of Central American deportees, the governments of these countries must increase their coordination with the United States and with established organizations within their countries, such as The Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador, to work with the deportees and track their cases.

Second, we must not lose sight of the important work our law enforcement and immigration organizations do in the United States to keep our citizens and legal immigrants safe. As we discuss this issue in depth, I would like to look at how our current laws are working and how they can be built upon to provide better coordination among nations. Gangs that are present in Central America and the Caribbean also have a large base in the U.S. Since each country is currently working to root out the gang influence in their respective nation, the process of reconciling America's concerns with those of other affected nations becomes a complicated matter. The bottom line is, unless all involved countries collectively take a strong stance against crime and re-entry of deported persons, these threats will not subside.

I hope that the outcome of this hearing will yield productive results in establishing the best method of tracking and accurately punishing criminal aliens through a reliable penal system here and abroad. Thank you for the time Mr. Chairman and I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists.