Catch and release disaster: 9 in 10 illegals are no-shows for asylum hearings

by WorldTribune Staff, June 2, 2019

Nearly 90 percent of illegals released into the U.S. under the catch and release program fail to show up for their asylum hearings.

The result is a nightmare scenario where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is forced to track down each illegal in order to deport them, a task ICE officials told Congress is impossible.

Border wall at San Diego and Tijuana. / Wikimedia Commons

“That particular population, as we continue to release into the interior hundreds if not thousands of family units into the interior every week, is of grave concern as it relates to these individuals not appearing before immigration judges and now being fugitives,” and ICE official told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The official said that ICE had recently conducted a pilot program with the Department of Justice to test how many illegals would show up to their asylum hearings after being released into the U.S. The results showed 87 percent did not show up.

In the same hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, another federal immigration official said that only about 12 percent of border-crossers and illegals who complete their asylum processes actually end up qualifying for asylum.

Since Dec. 21, 2018, DHS has released at least 190,500 border-crossers and illegal immigrants into the interior of the United States. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan told Congress late last month that those foreign nationals are eventually given work permits that allow them to take U.S. jobs while awaiting their asylum hearings.

A Harvard-Harris poll conducted last month found that 2-in-3 voters are opposed to catching and then releasing border-crossers and illegal immigrants into the U.S. while they await their asylum hearings.

GOP voters, conservatives, and supporters of President Donald Trump have ranked building a border wall and reducing all immigration as their top priorities.


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