U.S. Considers Returning Prisoners to Mexico

The Justice Department, in a preliminary assessment, has found no legal barriers to a pilot project to send Mexican citizens jailed in U.S. prisons back to Mexico, but an official said Friday that the government would have to investigate the quality of Mexican rehabilitation programs to which the convicts would return.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno announced the proposed prisoner repatriation during a visit to Mexico this week.

A treaty in force since 1977 provides for the transfer of prisoners between the two countries and appears to lay the legal groundwork for further negotiations, said Justice Department spokesman Drew Arena.

“The idea of rehabilitation is certainly an attractive one, and it would be useful to alleviate pressure on U.S. prisons,” Arena said. “But we want to ensure the quality of the facilities where (the prisoners) will be kept and the quality of rehabilitation programs. I think that something like this is doable, but that is a very preliminary assessment.”

Talks with Mexican officials are expected to get under way next week, Arena said.

The Reno visit came at a time of heightened tension between the United States and Mexico over illegal immigration and more strident calls for a crackdown on illegal immigrants who have flooded into California.

The prisoner return program would help stimulate cooperation between the two countries to resolve border problems, Reno said in a statement.

The Justice Department estimates that 5,000 Mexican nationals are in U.S. federal prisons, and California officials have said that about 15% of the state’s prison population consists of illegal immigrants. Arena said that sending state prisoners back to Mexico under the program was a “possibility.”

The Justice Department has asked federal prison officials to draw up a list of likely candidates for return to Mexican authorities.

Younger, first-time offenders would presumably be likely candidates for the program, Arena said. “We probably would not be looking at hardened, violent criminals or major drug traffickers.”

The Justice Department would also develop a set of criteria, including type of crime, suitability, age, length of sentence and time of sentence served, to select appropriate Mexican prisoners for the program.