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Stiffer penalties eyed vs aliens directed to voluntarily depart
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Posted on Feb 20 2006
The House minority bloc wants stiffer penalties for nonresidents who have violated the terms of their entry and have been offered voluntary departure.
Initiated by five House minority members, House Bill 15-65 would allow the Attorney General’s Office to impose penalties and condition on aliens who are offered an opportunity to voluntarily depart the Commonwealth, in lieu of facing deportation proceedings.
The bill notes that the voluntary departure provision “does not, in its current form, provide an adequate penalty for foreign nationals who violate the terms of their entry, and it is therefore an impractical alternative to deportation.”
Specifically, persons who have voluntarily departed the CNMI may immediately return without suffering any consequences other than the cost of a plane ticket.
As a result, the AGO rarely considers voluntary departures for persons accused of deportable criminal offenses.
On the other hand, a deportation action, which could end in an alien being permanently barred from the Commonwealth, is a costly and time-consuming procedure.
Because foreign nationals will avoid deportation at all costs, the AGO’s ability to reach plea agreements in criminal cases involving foreign national defendants. This, in turn, results in a backlog of cases at the AGO prosecutor’s office, the Office of the Public Defender, and the CNMI Superior Court.
“[I] is necessary to amend [the Commonwealth Code] to provide that, at the discretion of the attorney general, an individual may be subjected to fine and denied reentry to the Commonwealth for a period of up to 10 years from the date an individual is allowed to voluntarily depart the Commonwealth instead of facing deportation proceedings,” the bill stated.
