A United States senator has appealed to the Barack Obama government to stop issuing immigrant and non-immigrant visas to citizens of India and 22 other countries. In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said these countries, including China, are reluctant about taking back illegal immigrants from the US. "Dangerous criminals, including murderers, are being released every day because their home countries will not cooperate in taking them back,” he said.

According to Grassley, 2,166 illegal immigrants were released in the US in 2015, and as many as 6,100 such individuals were set free in 2014 and 2013. The senator pointed out that Cuba, China, Somalia, India and Ghana are the five most “recalcitrant countries” of the 23 labelled as uncooperative by the government. The US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is monitoring 62 other such countries, PTI reported.

The letter further went on to observe that Congress had addressed this issue when Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was implemented. Under the provision, the secretary of state must “discontinue granting immigrant or non-immigrant visas to a country upon receiving notice” that the country had either refused to, or has been irrationally delaying accepting a citizen of that country, Grassley said.