Letters: Deporting ex-detainees

Re “The detainee problem,” Editorial, Sept. 23

The Times writes: “The administration needs to make more of an effort to arrange the repatriation or resettlement of individuals no longer considered a threat.”

The Department of Homeland Security cannot unilaterally return foreign detainees without an approved travel document from their countries. The DHS has released many — probably hundreds, if not thousands — of foreign-born detainees who have been ordered deported but have not been accepted back in their native countries. These people are not detained and cannot be returned to their countries. And it is not for lack of trying by the DHS.

Rita Melnyk

Murrieta

The writer was an immigration attorney at the Department of Homeland Security.

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