On Monday I wrote about the Vietnamese butcher of five whose brutal crime was entirely preventable: Accused San Francisco Mass Murderer Was Not Deported to Vietnam. The case has not gotten much if any national attention, so it was reassuring to see law and sovereignty defender Congressman Ted Poe speak out on the issue:

Rep. Poe sponsored legislation last year to help solve the continuing problem of nations not accepting their deported criminal citizens, the Deport Foreign Convicted Criminals Act, HR 3256.

He examined the problem thoroughly last October 25 on the House floor:

Here’s the text of the speech, which is full of fascinating details:

DEPORT FOREIGN CRIMINALS, Washington, Oct 25 2011

Mr. Speaker, there’s been a lot of talk about immigration, border security and all of the problems in between. But let’s talk about one part of the immigration issue that has maybe slipped through the cracks and we don’t hear much about it. There are some illegal’s in the United States that are just criminals. They have been convicted of crimes from everything from stealing to killing, including rape, robbery and murder.

The Bureau of Prisons says that 27 percent of all the prisoners in Federal prisons are foreign nationals that are illegally in the United States. That’s astonishing, that over 25 percent of our Federal prisons house illegals, all at the expense of Americans. These criminals serve their sentence in our state or Federal prisons. Then after they serve that sentence and they are ordered deported, here’s what happens: many of their native countries refuse to take back their deported criminals.

Why would they take them back? They’ve got enough criminals of their own.

Since they won’t take back all of their own citizens that are convicted criminals after they serve their sentence, that nation tries to pawn off the remainder on the United States. These thugs get a get-out-of-jail-free card in the United States because we do not permanently detain them in jail after they have been ordered deported and their country of origin refuses to take them back. That mean they are released on the American streets. They are criminals without a country.

So how many people are we talking about? Well, according to an ICE report earlier this year, we’re talking about 138,000 illegal aliens who are pending deportation – either in jail or out on the streets. Some of these are never taken back to their home countries.

Now, who are these offending nations? Well, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, and yes, China. Our good buddies the Chinese are the second worst offenders, with 35,000 convicted criminals pending deportation. Imagine that – Chinese criminals in the United States. Who would have thought?

Well, we already have a law on the books that says that the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to report to the Secretary of State any countries that do not accept or unreasonably delay taking their citizens back. Then the Secretary of State is supposed to discontinue granting visas to citizens of that country. That sounds good, but the problem is Homeland Security doesn’t always enforce the rule of law. Homeland Security has the obligation to follow the law and ship these criminals back to where they belong. It’s simple: If you come to the United States illegally and commit a felony, you go home after you are lawfully deported.

It’s time we offer a proper incentive for these uncooperative nations – like China – who freely take money from us – like our debt – and turn around and disrespect our laws. There needs to be a punishment for any nation that refuses to take back lawfully deported criminal aliens. We should not be issuing visas to diplomats of other nations that refuse to cooperate with our government. There should be consequences for countries whose citizens illegally enter the United States, harm our citizens, go to prison, and the host country disrespects the law of the United States and doesn’t take back their malcontent citizens.

So how do we make sure that these disrespectful foreign governments take back their citizens? Today, I introduced the Deport Convicted Foreign Criminals Act. This bill is simple. First, if a country does not take back their criminal aliens after 90 days of being given proper legal notice, diplomatic visas will be withheld. Then, if the country still refuses to take back their criminals, these sanctions will be expanded to include other types of visas.

Our government needs to be more concerned about the rule of law, the security of our Nation, and the cost to the American taxpayer than it is about hurting the feelings of some foreign country. Immigration is a complicated issue. But this part is simple. Foreign convicted criminals need to go back home. Their homeland should take them whether they want them or not. The United States cannot be a halfway house for foreign criminals.

And that’s just the way it is.