Ramón Urbaez, reporting from New York for Hoy newspaper, said that the New York authorities have suspended the program whereby illegal residents who had committed non-violent crimes with sentences still pending were deported to their countries of origin. The program was instated to save money to the New York penitentiary system. The program is suspended after the justice and prison authorities determined that several of those that were deported have returned and committed similar crimes. In 1996, 1,648 Dominicans were deported as part of the program, according to the newspaper.
