Congressman Ted Poe

WASHINGTON, December 12 -

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Mr. Speaker,

According to the Boston Globe, Qian Wu was beaten, choked, punched, and held at knifepoint by Chinese national Huang Chen. That was in 2006.

Her attacker was sent to prison in Exas, supposedly never to be heard of again. Or so she thought. Four years later, Wu was sitting alone in her apartment when guess who shows up – the person who assaulted her to begin with – busting through her door. HE reportedly said in a taunting voice, “I bet you didn’t expect to see me here.”

Wu called the police, and Chen quickly fled the scene, but 2 weeks later, he returned to finish what he began 4 years ago. Chen beat Ms. Wu to death with a hammer, stabbed her with a knife, leaving her to do die in her pool of blood.

Mr. Speaker, Ms. Wu’s death did not have to occur. This crime could have actually been prevented. Chen should not have been back on the streets after serving time in prison, but he was, and here’s why.

After he had served his initial sentence for assaulting Ms. Wu, he was ordered legally deported back where he came from, back to China. But his home country our good old buddies the Chinese, refused to take him back. They didn’t want him. And so they stalled and stalled and stalled, and over those 3 years of Chinese stalling and giving him the runaround, Chen was eventually freed – free to kill, and kill he did.

Mr. Speaker, this tragedy is not an isolated phenomenon. Unfortunately, other Americans have died as a result of this gaping hole in the immigration system. It’s no secret that everybody believes our immigration system is broken. Fixing it down the road will be complex and complicated. But there are some things that we can do about immigration right now to fix specific problems, and here’s one.

Currently, Mr. Speaker, thousands of criminal aliens are in our country, just like Chen, who have committed a crime and gone to prison. Our immigration system worked to order them deported, but their country won’t take them back. They refuse to do so. So those countries stall and delay and eventually never take back their outlaws. So by law, after the person serves the time in our prisons, we can’t keep them indefinitely waiting on their country to take them back, and so they are eventually released. These countries know that, and that’s why they stall.

Many of those criminals now are running around on American streets looking for more crime and up to more malicious mischief.

The blood of American victims is not only on the hands of the felons who commit these crimes from foreign countries, but they’re also the fault of those countries that refuse to take back these criminal citizens.

You know, the blood of Ms. Wu is on the hands of Chinese citizen Huang Chen, but it’s also on the hands of the Chinese bureaucrats that would not take Chen back. Oh, Mr. Speaker, they may wear white gloves because they weren’t the direct killer of Ms. Wu, but their delay allowed for that crime to be committed. And below those white gloves are the blood of this citizen who was killed in this country.

And it’s not just China committing these acts of not taking back lawfully deported individuals; there are numerous countries. Vietnam, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Cuba are just a few.

So what should we do? Well, Mr. Speaker, there’s already a law to require that there be some sanctions against these countries that refuse to take back their lawfully deported aliens, but the State Department doesn’t enforce the law. The State Department says, well, we want to work diplomatically to get these people sent back. We don’t want to require any sanctions. And so they talk and they talk and they talk. Meanwhile, more crimes are being committed by these people who are released, who should have been sent home, while the State Department continues to talk. Like my grandfather used to say: When all is said and done, more is said than done.

We need to get these people out of our country who have been lawfully deported. These countries need to take them back, or there ought to be a consequence.

I’ve introduced legislation that removes the uncertainty and the weak knees of bureaucrats and requires the State Department to follow through with visa sanctions against the countries that won’t take back their lawfully deported criminals. I repeat, those visa sanctions should be primarily against, first, diplomats from these countries when they don’t take back these individuals.

It’s time to play a little bit of diplomatic hard ball with these nations. After all, Americans are dying because these criminals are illegally on the streets and our Nation does not insist on them being taken back.

It’s time to make these crooks and misfits the problem of their home country, rather than continue to remain our problem. Otherwise, more Americans are going to die.

It’s time to play a little hard ball with these countries.

And that’s just the way it is.

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