Rep. Courtney said ICE has "totally dysfunctional" integration with the State Department.
The ability of other countries to block the deportation of convicted criminals in the United States was the subject of a federal hearing Thursday.
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- or ICE -- could have done more to deport the Haitian national Jean Jacques.
Jacques served a prior conviction in Connecticut for attempted murder, was released from prison and held by ICE, which tried to deport him numerous times. But the government of Haiti refused to take him back -- which meant Jacques was released unsupervised, and later killed Casey Chadwick, a 25-year-old from Norwich.
Speaking on WNPR'sWhere We Live, Representative Joe Courtney called the situation "appalling."
"If we can't deport someone who's convicted of a violent offense -- then, frankly, that's really I think going to create grave problems in terms of public support for our immigration system," Courtney said.
He said ICE has "totally dysfunctional" integration with the State Department, which is responsible for pressuring other countries that don't take back its deported nationals in cases like Jean Jacques.
Courtney, whose district includes Norwich, was invited to speak at a House hearing on denying visas to countries like Haiti that refuse to take back deported nationals.
"Frankly your department," he told Daniel Ragsdale, Deputy Director of ICE, "you have got to do a better job of getting your game up on understanding what the rules are, and put some metrics in place about the people why deserve to be prioritized in terms of their dangerous criminal records – because that clearly did not happen."
The Inspector General also wants to determine whether the department "has cohesive policy and procedures to remove priority level one aliens on the non-detained docket and to identify systemic factors that may hamper removal efforts."
That part of the investigation remains ongoing.
