EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Wants To Shut Off Aid Tap For Countries Refusing To Take Back Their Deported Citizens

House Republicans are pushing legislation to help the Trump administration punish foreign governments that refuse to accept their deported citizens.

The Deportation Compliance Act calls for penalties against any recalcitrant country, which are countries that refuse to take back citizens kicked out of the United States. If passed and signed into law, the U.S. would withhold all foreign assistance to any government that either outright refuses to accept their deportees or takes longer than six months to do so, according to text of the legislation shared exclusively with the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation by its sponsor, Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy.

“Countries that refuse to accept their own citizens deported from America for breaking our laws must face serious consequences,” Roy stated to the DCNF. “Their actions undermine our sovereignty and security. ”

“To the extent any foreign aid should exist — we should absolutely cut off the flow of cash to those ‘recalcitrant’ countries that refuse to comply with our deportation orders,” Roy continued. “America will not, and must not, tolerate the disrespect of our laws by any foreign government.”

Recalcitrant nations have long frustrated federal officials attempting to carry out immigration law. Rather than remain in U.S. detention indefinitely, many migrants hailing from recalcitrant countries are released back into American communities due to limitations in detention capacity.

The U.S. government identified 13 recalcitrant governments in July 2020: Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan and Russia. However, some foreign governments have gone back-and-forth on compliance over the years, and it has not always been easy obtaining an up-to-date tally of uncooperative countries.