Cablegate: Prison Repatriations to Mexico: Request for Dhs Guidance

VZCZCXRO3716
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #3002 2921728
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191728Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8652
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE

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

© Scoop Media