Medina seeks Obama’s support to reintegrate deportees

Washington DC, (listin.com.do).- Dominican Ambassador Anibal de Castro on Monday revealed that president Danilo Medina seeks U.S. support to reintegrate deported locals into Dominican society, after serving time on U.S. soil.

The diplomat said Medina and other Central American leaders raised the issue with U.S. president Barack Obama at the recent Central American Integration System (SICA) summit in San José, Costa Rica.

"Given the reality that U.S. policy will not change in the short term, such as to deport convicted foreigners after serving time in the United States, Dominican Republic proposed a reintegration program to limit the negative impact and aftermath of these deportations," he said.

The diplomat said that although Obama didn’t respond to the proposal, citing budget constraints, Medina did obtain complete access to the records of Dominican ex-cons, to have their criminal history and to track them when they return the country.

"The embassy has created a database and coordinates access to those records with the Interior and Police Ministry," De Castro said, adding that the National Police, the National Investigations Department (DNI) and the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) will also get access.

He said the government considers the increasing number of ex-convicts deported from the United States a national security problem, with their ever growing participation in criminal activities, especially drug trafficking.

De Castro said although they are Dominicans, “most of them learned the art of crime in the United States and, therefore, it’s an American crime exported to the Dominican Republic." He said the deportees will enter a reintegration program to become productive.