Taboola script Diabled on 7th April on request Adpushup head code Diabled on 7th April on request
Washington: Fifty-four Indians were deported back from the
US in April and another set of Indians from the country will be sent back to
India this month, a top US official said.
India has improved its timeliness in
issuing travel documents to its citizens under final orders of removal, Michele
Thoren Bond, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs told lawmakers
during a Congressional hearing on repatriation of convicted criminal aliens.
Fifty-four Indian citizens returned home on an ICE charter flight in April
2016, and the Government of India is scheduling a July, 2016 charter as well,
Bond said.
ICE stands for US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. “We are encouraged that India is on a positive trajectory,
and we intend to remain engaged on this issue with India through newly
established quarterly meetings to address difficult cases and ensure processes
are smooth and efficient”, Bond said.
Last month Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson that as many as 23 countries, including India and China, are
non-cooperative in not taking back illegal immigrants from the US and asked the
Obama Administration to initiate action against them by discontinuing issuing
immigrant and non-immigrant visas to them.
Bond said the State Department and the
Department of Homeland Security are working closely with the Indian government
to maintain and build on this progress. “We will continue to raise this issue
with Indian officials at appropriate levels, including at the upcoming US-India
Homeland Security Dialogue, which is scheduled to take place in Washington in
late July 2016”, he said.
Bond said he would travel to New Delhi
in August for the annual consular bilateral dialogue.” As in past years, I will
raise this issue with the Indians, and press for immediate action on the part
of the Indian government to issue travel documents and accept the return of its
citizens under final orders of removal”, he said.
While there have been some progress on
removals since the November 2015 US-India Consular Dialogue, during which State
and DHS jointly highlighted the urgency of resolving this issue, it has not
been enough, he said.
Following this and subsequent
discussions, and many other interventions on this issue at different levels
with the Government of India and with its diplomatic mission in the US, India
has improved its timeliness in issuing travel documents to its citizens under
final orders of removal, Bond said.
According to ICE more than 950,000
foreign nationals with final orders of removal remain in the US, National
Security Subcommittee Chairman Ron DeSantis said.
It is not unreasonable to say that if
someone comes into the country illegally and then gets convicted of attempted
murder, that it should be a very high priority of the government to get that
person out of our country, he said.
PTI
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Obama Administration¸54 Indians deported back to India in April from US