Like Obama, Trump Stymied in Deportation Efforts

Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post, Apr. 8, 2017 - "Yintang Cao, a Chinese national who served time for hawking counterfeit designer purses, was freed from immigration detention March 31 after the United States failed to win permission from China to deport him. Emil Al Seryani, a Jordanian citizen convicted of burglary and drug dealing, was released March 7, again after deportation efforts failed.  Their quiet return to their lives in the United States contradicts one of President Trump’s signature campaign promises: to deport criminals who are not U.S. citizens, even to countries that do not want them back.  As a candidate, Trump excoriated the Obama administration and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for releasing thousands of criminals who he said might have been deported had the United States imposed sanctions on their uncooperative homelands.  “Day One, my first hour in office, those people are gone,” Trump said last year in Arizona.  But as president, Trump is confronting the same diplomatic and legal challenges as his predecessors, including whether to jeopardize national security and economic interests so that a nation such as China will accept all Chinese citizens that U.S. authorities want to deport."