I wrote the following letter to the Department of Homeland Security in response to the notion that it was considering extending the REPAT program to federal inmates.
August 18, 2009
Dr. Char Wittenberg
Chief of Policy and Communications
Office of Detention and Removal Operations
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
500 12th Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20536
Re: Rapid REPAT program
Dear Dr. Wittenberg,
I just read a copy of a letter you wrote in which you advise that “extending the [REPAT] program to federal inmates within the Federal Bureau of Prisons is under consideration.” If this is true, it is welcome news. Though it remains to be seen whether ICE will really implement the program, I think it is long overdue. There are couriers occupying bed space who could have been released long ago and deported to their countries with little chance they would return. And their lengthy sentences are only lengthy because of the quantity-driven formula of the Sentencing Guidelines.
I am assuming the Rapid REPAT program was not first implemented in the federal system simply because it was not deemed necessary to do so, unlike state systems which were bursting at the seams. But the same benefits derived from the Rapid REPAT program are applicable in every way to the federal system, especially cost-saving. Given the current recession, I would think that everyone of all persuasions would be supportive of Rapid REPAT in the federal system, if judiciously implemented. No one wants to provide for alien non-violent criminals who are subject to deportation anyway.
While I have your attention, I want to take advantage and address a situation that drives me crazy every time I come up against it and that is the procedure regarding deportation. Defendants are arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison. Some are illegal aliens while others are legal residents who have been convicted of drug or money laundering crimes and are mandatorily deportable. Defendants such as these may serve multiple year sentences and yet, except for “orders to show cause,” which are served upon them by your agents, nothing else is done for years until they come into your custody.
The point I am making is that there is no need to delay the process until the defendants formally come into ICE custody. While defendants sit in stir in federal prisons, they could be processed so that upon their release they are deported forthwith, especially where inmates consent and want to be deported to their homeland. It should not take months for this process to be completed while inmates sit in contract jails, which we pay for, at rates rivaling good hotel. Why not change the process?
It is wasteful and wrong to incarcerate people in county facilities who have already served their time. It seems like a no brainer, or better yet a good-brainer. It should be met with universal approval, but it is not being done. Why?
Faithfully yours,
David S. Zapp