Blog Archive

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Calderon: U.S. dumping Mexican criminals at border

America shares blame in violence, Mexican president says
The Tucson Sentinel
21 October 2011

Mexican President Felipe Calderón says the United States is responsible for fueling violence in Mexico's border areas, because it chooses to deport criminals, rather than prosecute them.

He said it was cheaper to send them back rather than put them on trial, and that the deportees then became involved with criminal gangs in Mexico.

The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials this week revealed a record number of deportations in the past fiscal year, adding that those with criminal convictions had nearly doubled since 2008.

Calderón told an immigration conference in Mexico City:

"There are many factors in the violence that is being experienced in some Mexican border cities, but one of those is that the American authorities have gotten into the habit of simply deporting 60,000 or 70,000 migrants per year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana."

Calderón said that among the deportees were “many who really are criminals."

The BBC reported that when illegal Mexican immigrants finish a prison term in the United States they are taken to the border and freed.

But Mexican nationals with criminal records in the United States cannot be held in their home country if they have not broken the law there.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/102111_mexico_us_criminals/calderon-us-dumping-mexican-criminals-border/