Mass Invasion Forces US Homeland Security to Release 100,000 Illegals in 15 Months
THE US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY has been forced to release at least 100,000 illegal invaders from detention by court orders, federal laws regarding the detention of minors, and a simple lack of accommodation over the past 15 months.
Homeland Security officials say they had to release the illegals — more than 37,500 of who claim to be “unaccompanied minors” and more than 61,000 family members — because of judges’ rulings and federal laws banning prolonged detentions for children, and a lack of detention beds.
Federal officials say they are limited by a 2008 anti-trafficking law that bans returning unaccompanied minors to countries other than Mexico and Canada without a hearing, as well as a 1997 legal settlement that limits how long “undocumented children” can be detained.
Officials say about half the border crossers come from Central America. The government often releases parents and children together because detention facilities do not have enough space to keep them in custody.
“The Trump administration has their hands tied,” said Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
Another factor clogging the deportation process is that more of the invaders are now “seeking asylum.”
Under federal law, the government cannot deport “asylum-seekers” before their cases are heard in the backlogged immigration courts; many are freed on bond to live and work in the United States.
“Those who break our immigration laws have continued to exploit legal loopholes to the detriment of our national security and the safety of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton.
The White House said in a statement that the government since fiscal 2016 had apprehended 167,000 “parents and children” but later released most of them, along with more than 107,000 unaccompanied minors.
A breakdown of those figures requested by The Washington Post showed that the numbers were slightly higher. About 200,000 families and “unaccompanied minors” were freed under Obama.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, said that “smugglers have figured out that the courts have tied ICE’s hands and ICE doesn’t have the money for detention space. The [Obama] catch-and-release policy is still in effect.”
The White House said many released minors — nearly 70 percent of whom are teenage boys — have not shown up for their deportation hearings.
“Foreign nationals see how easy it is to enter the United States, and how hard it is for federal immigration authorities to remove aliens who enter illegally,” the White House statement said last week.
“In the absence of lasting solutions, we can only expect the flow of illegal immigration into our country to continue.”
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Source: The New Observer
