12 illegal aliens have joined in a legal action suing Pres. Trump for denying them their “rights” to claim asylum in the United States U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) substantiates the most recent apprehension of 654 illegal aliens from Guatemala surging across the U.S. border near Yuma in just two days this week. According […]
via Border Patrol apprehends 654 illegals in Yuma, AZ — Seeing Red AZ
With bags on her shoulders and her four-year-old daughter in her arms, a 25-year-old single mother named Amanda fled her village in El Salvador without saying goodbye to her parents or siblings. She was focused on just one thing: survival.
“I owned a store, and gang members made me pay them $200 of what I made each week,” she recalled. “I paid for five months but ran out of money. Then one morning, two gang members came into my house and said they’d murder me and my daughter that night if I didn’t pay them. I gathered everything I could and left.”
After a perilous journey north through Mexico, Amanda crossed the US border with her daughter in late April and applied for asylum, a status granted to individuals who face persecution in their homeland. She is among tens of thousands of mothers who have fled gang violence in Central America since 2014.
In an attempt to deter the unauthorized migration of families to the United States, the federal government created a massive family immigrant detention system and launched a series of deportation raids. Immigration officials revealed last week that they will conduct another string of raids in May and June, removing hundreds of undocumented immigrants from the US who have arrived over the past two years.
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Four out of 10 illegal immigrants never show up for their court hearings. That’s according to Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council (which represents border patrol agents).
Judd testified that illegal immigrants show up to their required court hearings only 60 percent of the time after being issued a “notice to appear” at the U.S. border. In other words, at least 40 percent of illegal immigrants crossing the border will not show up to court to face deportation proceedings.
This shows that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has disregarded the rule of law as it prioritizes its own administrative policies over current immigration law.
According to Judd’s testimony, in response to such embarrassingly high levels of no-shows, DHS has changed its policy. This new policy requires U.S. border patrol agents to release an illegal immigrant from custody as long as he or she has not been convicted of a felony crime and claims to have continually resided in the United States prior to January 2014.
The impacts of this are twofold. First, many removable illegal immigrants are simply released into the United States. Second, such policies make it appear as though fewer illegal immigrants are skipping their court hearings than actually are. After all, if they are never instructed to show up at court, DHS and the Department of Justice do not have to account for them as absconders.
As a result of this and other efforts not to enforce immigration laws, U.S. border patrol officers and immigration agents are unable to properly conduct their duties, as drug cartels take advantage of the ensuing chaos. This is inexcusable.
It should come as no surprise, then, that removals and returns from the U.S. continue to drop, reaching the lowest point since 1971. Deportations from the interior of the U.S. have fallen dramatically, and even the removal of criminal aliens is plummeting.
Even more shockingly, when asked what the consequences would be for a border patrol agent who violated DHS policies in favor of adhering to federal law, Judd testified that “if they do not comply with the policies that are given, we could terminate [them].” As a result, U.S. border patrol agents are being forced to ignore federal law in favor of obeying DHS policies or face the consequences.
Despite its statements to the contrary, the Obama administration has the ability to more quickly and effectively remove illegal immigrants by means of the 287(g) program and “expedited removal” provisions that are enshrined in federal law. Rather than look for excuses to ignore the law, DHS should be using the tools at its disposal to uphold the law.
Read the Original Article at Daily Signal