US threatens India, seven other countries with sanctions for not taking back illegal immigrants

A legislation targeting India and seven other countries which allegedly refused to take back illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in the United States, has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The Bill requires reports being sent to the Congress every 90 days on the countries, which inhibit repatriation that would automatically trigger denial of foreign aid as well as suspension of visa issuances to them.

The Bill, a companion to the Accountability in Immigrant Repatriation (AIR) Act of 2008 introduced last month in the US Senate, was introduced by Congressmen Charlie Dent and Michael Castle. According to the Congressmen, as of February 11, 2008, eight countries including India have refused to repatriate a total of over 1,39,000 illegal migrants. More than 18,000 of them were convicted criminals but were released. The AIR Act will suspend all pending visa petitions from those countries until they agree to repatriate.