HARTFORD -- A report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement "(ICE) could have and should have done more to remove Jean Jacques from this country before he had the chance to brutally murder Casey Chadwick."
Jacques, 41, is an illegal Haitian immigrant who was convicted in the 2015 murder of the Norwich woman and sentenced June 6 in New London Superior Court.
Jacques was given the maximum 60 years to serve behind bars for Chadwick's murder.
He murdered Chadwick just five months after he was released from prison after serving 17 years for attempted murder in a separate case. Failed attempts to deport Jacques back to Haiti led ICE officials to set him free in early 2015.
According to the report, ICE lacked sufficient framework to secure key identity documents to provide Jacques’ nationality, a central part of Haiti’s repeated refusal to accept Jacques. ICE did not formally escalate this case to the State Department after Haiti’s repeated rejection of Jacques. And ICE did not properly supervise Jacques after his release.
“We will continue to explore the issues raised in today’s report and look for ways to address the unacceptable failings it found," Senators Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, and Rep. Joe Courtney said in a joint statement. "The Chadwick family, the people of Norwich, and the people of Connecticut have our commitment that we will do everything in our power to ensure that the grievous errors that made possible the murder of one of our constituents can never happen again.”
The report was requested by Rep. Courtney with Sen. Blumenthal and Sen. Murphy to determine why Jacques was not deported after serving jail time for attempted murder.
Jacques originally came to the U.S. illegally from Haiti back in 1996. Earlier this year, he wrote a letter to FOX 61 about being moved around in detention facilities and not deported.
Chadwick’s mother, Wendy Hartling, says she is working on introducing new laws in Connecticut to help change deportation policies and believes that had the ICE and The Department of Homeland Security done their jobs, her daughter might still be here.
