PRISON REPATRIATIONS TO MEXICO: REQUEST FOR DHS GUIDANCE

UNCLAS MEXICO 003002 SENSITIVE SIPDIS WHA FOR DAS JACOBSON STATE PASS TO DHS/ICE FOR A/DAS AL PENA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SMIG SOCI MX SUBJECT: PRISON REPATRIATIONS TO MEXICO: REQUEST FOR DHS GUIDANCE ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraph 4. ¶2. (SBU) The repatriation to Mexico of Mexican nationals currently incarcerated in California penal facilities has lately taken a prominent place in talks with GOM officials at the federal, state, and local levels. The directors for Mexican citizen affairs at the Secretariat for Foreign Relations and Mexico's Embassy in Washington raised the repatriations with the Ambassador and Deputy Assistant Secretary for North America Jacobson in a September conference of U.S. and Mexican border consuls. The Governor of Baja California State and the Mayor of Ciudad Juarez similarly expressed substantial concern in October meetings with the Ambassador. The issue surfaces regularly in border Consulate conversations with local and state contacts. ¶3. (SBU) Short on facts, public and government chatter on the topic is ripe with distortions and exaggerated numbers. (One example: Tijuana daily paper El Mexicano has reported that 40,000 individuals will be deported to Mexico under the California early release proposal.) Part of the fear the proposal has generated is based on experience of prior repatriations. The Mayor of Ciudad Juarez noted that many prisoners repatriated in the past have carried on in Mexico the activities of the gangs with which they were associated while incarcerated, a number have died in the violence between cartels, and two repatriates recently arrested face between them charges for 20 homicides committed in Mexico since their release. The Governor of Baja California hoped prisoners from southern Mexico and Central America could return directly to their homes, rather than to his state. He requested the USG share data about the convictions against the repatriates, cautioning that certain minor infractions of U.S. law are more serious crimes under the Mexican penal code. ¶4. (SBU) Mission Mexico lacks a clear understanding of how the releases from California prisons and repatriations to Mexico will be structured. Without this background, our officers are unable to represent a USG position to Mexican interlocutors. Accordingly, Mission Mexico respectfully requests that Immigration and Customs Enforcement issue guidance appropriate for internal and external use. Points of contact for this request are ICE attache Louie Garcia (GarciaLR2@state.gov) and economic officer Jon Austin (AustinJT@state.gov) in Mexico City and Mexico desk officer Kirn Braich (BraichKP@state.gov) in Washington. PASCUAL