WASHINGTON (CMC) – Caribbean nationals who have been deported from the United States are returning illegally to the country, according to a report released by an immigration think tank.

Immigration Policy Centre (IPC) said that new figures show that the number of US federal prosecution cases against previously deported immigrants from the Caribbean and other developing countries is increasing nationwide.

It said that criminal prosecutions for illegal re-entry to the US increased from 7,900 in fiscal year 2000 to 35,800 in fiscal year 2010.

The report says that 44 per cent of all criminal immigration prosecutions in federal courts around the country now come from illegal re-entry, as the charge is commonly called.

It says prosecutions of re-entry after deportation cases in Miami federal court, for example, have also increased from 39 in fiscal year 2011 to 57 in fiscal year 2012.

Immigration attorneys said many of the immigrants who are deported return or try to return, despite the threat of criminal prosecution, because they have properties here or want to rejoin husbands, wives, or children left behind in the United States.

“Many of them have roots in the community,” said Wilfredo Allen, a prominent Miami immigration attorney.

He said the issue stems from an increase in deportations under the Obama administration of foreign criminals who previously had been lawful permanent residents and who left behind properties or families who are US citizens, “and they don’t want to relocate to the deportee’s country”.

According to US immigration laws, if convicted, a foreign national charged with re-entry after deportation can be sentenced up to two years in a federal penitentiary and be deported again.

A US Senate bill, if approved as law, would alter the current re-entry-after-deportation policy.

It would allow Caribbean and other foreign nationals who have been deported to apply for legal status if they have a US citizen spouse or are the children of US citizens.