Thread: ‘Catch-and-Release’ Still Enforced Despite Trump Order to End It

Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis holds emergency hearing in the House on the growing flood of large groups of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S.

by Kathryn Blackhurst | Updated 13 Apr 2018 at 12:28 AM

Federal immigration officials are “still doing” the “catch-and-release” border enforcement policies despite President Donald Trump’s order to end the practice — meaning recently arrived illegal immigrants are still able to roam the country freely, according to Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).

“It is still happening against the wishes of the elected president. And that’s the problem,” DeSantis said Thursday night on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News. “I mean, if you have a caravan coming, they should just be stopped at the border and turned away.”

Promoting immigration enforcement, border security and the construction of a border wall were among Trump’s key campaign policies during the 2016 presidential election. Trump also promised to end “catch-and-release” specifically. As president, Trump signed a memorandum earlier this month to end the program.

In February 2017, the president ordered the Department of Homeland Security to end the policy as well.

DeSantis noted that he chaired an emergency subcommittee hearing Thursday regarding actions that can be taken to stymie the flow of illegal immigration from Mexico into the U.S., including large groups of illegal immigrants traveling in "caravans" and seeking asylum.

"And I think, you know, the consensus amongst most of the witnesses [at the hearing] today was one, Trump ordered the catch-and-release to be done [away with], and yet they’re still doing it," DeSantis told Ingraham. "Then the other thing is when you have the massive border surges — that really is a godsend to the drug cartels and the amount of fentanyl and all this junk that they’ve been able to bring into our country that has caused a lot of people to lose their lives."

Catch-and-release policies are especially helpful to those conducting criminal activities in the U.S., he said. "In the large groups, you have the human trafficking, you have the drugs — I mean, it really is a boon for the cartels. And so we’ve got to get this under control."

Ingraham pointed to reports about a group of 61 immigrants who attempted to enter the U.S. illegal on Monday night through Yuma, Arizona. One 18-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras, Herberth Geovani Argueta-Chavez, even admitted to being an MS-13 gang member.

Ingraham told DeSantis she hoped he would "continue to educate" the American people about "what's happening at the border" while he campaigns for governor "because I think Americans, when they hear that catch-and-release is still happening, are infuriated and shocked."

"And the president needs to step up and take the members of Congress who are allowing this to happen to task," Ingraham said.

DeSantis told Ingraham that Trump's signature border wall is essential for stopping illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. because "walls do not have prosecutorial discretion," unlike government bureaucrats still allowing catch-and-release policies to thrive.

"So if a bureaucrat doesn’t want to enforce the law, if they want to do the old Obama policies, or if you have an administration like [Obama's] where they basically just give up on enforcement, then you don’t have your laws being enforced," DeSantis said. "But the wall’s the wall. And the places where they have it, like San Diego, it works."

https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/...der-to-end-it/

We need a real HS chief. obama's HS just came out and directed - lady daca is too complacent with all of this open border scenario. Is she really protecting Americans - NO! And trump needs to whip out his pen like obama did and make decrees effective immediately not later this year. What is the sense in picking up KNOWN criminals 100 here, 30 there when you are letting in 40,000 unknowns a month? ryan wants to talk removing/lowering $$ entitlements to Americans while we are paying $1500 a month (if that is the figure) and travel service for each one of these questionable people into the country, plus educating their children?

I don't know if people know how many employees there are in the US DHS, it's 229,000, or how many there are in the US Department of Justice, 113,000. That is 342,000 paid employees whose job is to protect Americans and secure our borders according to law. We are absolutely NOT getting our money's worth, not out of DOJ or DHS.

There needs to be major reductions in DOJ at the FBI and DEA. Those agents skilled in arrests by the thousands, need to be transferred immediately under an emergency executive order to ICE in DHS and start deporting. Create a unit that does nothing but "investigate" citizenship and legal status, appoint them as Immigration Judges, and get these 650,000 illegal aliens in the DOJ back-log the hell out of our country by Labor Day. And any member of Congress who wants to raise a stink about it, put their name on a list as a potential "drug cartel payola recipient" and follow the money. Because I'd bet my last dollar every one of them are on the take with the cartels. It's not about votes like so many think, it's about that drug money. When you face that reality, then you can devise solutions to the problem. Until then, you're chasing the wrong boogeyman while they laugh and snarl all the way to the bank.

Most people have the wrong perception of a "drug cartel". They see them as "Chapos", they aren't "Chapos", the drug cartels are people in suits who run countries, governments, newspapers, banks, churches and businesses. The drug business is a $300 to $400 billion a year tax free business before the auxiliary criminal enterprises. That's a $600 to $800 billion a year trade if it was a legal enterprise, more than that when tax rates were high and well over $1 Trillion with auxiliary enterprises. It's the lowest risk, highest profit, debt-free, easiest money in the world, and it's all .... CASH.

You'll never defeat them until you legalize and regulate the recreational drug business, either on the federal level or through the states.