The Deportation Compliance Act prohibits U.S. foreign assistance to countries penalized for delaying or refusing to accept their deported citizens.
Chip Roy
Representative
TX-21
The Deportation Compliance Act prohibits U.S. foreign assistance to countries that have been penalized by the Secretary of State for delaying or refusing to accept their own citizens, subjects, nationals, or residents for longer than 180 days. This prohibition remains in effect as long as the country continues to delay or refuse acceptance.
New Bill Cuts Aid to Countries Slow-Walking Deportations: 180-Day Deadline
The "Deportation Compliance Act" aims to crack down on countries that delay or refuse to accept their citizens who are being deported from the United States. Essentially, if a country drags its feet for more than 180 days on taking back someone the U.S. is trying to deport, they risk losing American foreign aid.
Hard Stop on Foreign Aid
The core of this bill is pretty straightforward: The Secretary of State gets the power to penalize countries that don't cooperate with U.S. deportation orders. If, after 180 days of being penalized, a country still hasn't complied, all U.S. foreign assistance to that nation is cut off. We're talking about potentially millions of dollars in aid that could be used for things like healthcare, education, or infrastructure in those countries, now being withheld.
Real-World Ripple Effects
Let's say Country X relies on U.S. aid to fund its hospitals, and also happens to have a slow, under-resourced system for verifying the identities of people being deported. Under this bill, if the U.S. tries to deport someone to Country X, and Country X takes more than 180 days to confirm that person's identity and accept them, the U.S. can cut off that hospital funding, along with any other aid. This could mean regular people in Country X suddenly lose access to critical services, through no fault of their own, all because of bureaucratic delays or lack of resources in their government. (SEC. 2.)
The Bigger Picture
This bill raises some serious questions. While speeding up deportations might sound good on paper, using foreign aid as a stick could have major consequences. We're not just talking about diplomatic tensions; we're talking about real harm to vulnerable populations who depend on that aid. It also doesn't get to the root of why some countries might be slow to accept deportees – sometimes it's about verifying identities, sometimes it's a lack of resources. This bill doesn't offer solutions to those problems; it just punishes countries that have them.