Thread: Catch and Release

Many non-Mexican aliens caught, released, disappear
Monday, May 15, 2006

By Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post



WASHINGTON -- Beefed-up enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border since Sept. 11, 2001, has substantially increased the number of arrests of illegal immigrants, but tens of thousands of captured non-Mexicans continue to be released into the United States because there is no place to hold them, according to experts and immigration officials. Mexico will not accept them.

The vast majority simply slip away inside the country after being issued "Notices to Appear" for a deportation hearing -- documents known to Border Patrol agents as "Notices to Disappear." The success of border crossers who stay in the United States through this "catch-and-release" process has encouraged others who hope to enter the country the same way.

In a dozen speeches since October, President Bush has vowed to replace catch-and-release with the "catch-and-return" of 160,000 "other than Mexican" (OTM) immigrants arrested each year. The goal is to deny court hearings to all but asylum-seekers, speed deportations and make the most of limited detention space in jails, prisons and immigration centers.

But as Washington debates the overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and Bush prepares to address the nation on border protection today, the persistent catch-and-release problem is a reminder of costly and unintended consequences of past enforcement efforts.

Even if authorities overcome operational and legal hurdles to curb the flow of people from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and other countries, experts say they will be addressing only a tiny sliver of the illegal immigration problem. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested nearly 1.2 million people last year -- the vast majority of them Mexicans who were returned across the border -- and estimates that 500,000 others evaded capture.

"What Congress has built is one of the most expensive revolving doors in the world," said Victor Cerda, former chief of staff of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Without broader changes, he said, "You're going to be here in 10 years, with another 20 million aliens."

Since the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, which sought to deter illegal crossings with a show of force, arrests of non-Mexican border crossers have tripled, from 49,545 in 2003 to 155,000 in 2005. But there has not been a corresponding support for detention beds, courts, inland enforcement or diplomatic and administrative reforms.

As a result, the spike in arrests backfired, because there was no place to put the tens of thousands of new detainees. Overwhelmed immigration courts have been unable to keep up.

Nor could the Border Patrol immediately send non-Mexicans back to Mexico, like most of the people it catches each year, who are free to simply try to cross the border again. Mexico does not accept other countries' nationals, forcing the agency to house them at an annual cost of $35,000 per bed.

Beset by start-up and coordination problems in the new Homeland Security Department, ICE faced a $500 million budget deficit in 2004, leaving a fourth of its detention jobs unfilled. As arrests climbed last year, Border Patrol agents released 70 percent of non-Mexicans into the country. Of those released and later ordered to leave the country, only 18 percent do.

Word soon spread to smugglers and illegal immigrants, who rushed in to learn whether finding work in the United States meant only a short detention at the border.

Federal statistics show the result, which has enraged border communities. Once arrested and released, the number of aliens who failed to appear in court more than tripled from 29,550 in 2003 to 97,868 in 2005, or 60 percent of cases, up from 32 percent.

"The system is broken as we've known it. ... It's a joke," said Robert Bonner, head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2003 to 2005. For those considering entering the country illegally, Mr. Bonner said, "it was the opposite of deterrence. It was an invitation."

The new attempt to solve the problem draws critics from the right and left. Of those who want tougher enforcement, the offensive on non-Mexicans tackles only a small portion of the flow of illegal immigration and amounts to "window-dressing" that obscures feckless efforts elsewhere.

"It's not quite as important as the administration would have you believe," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which wants stronger efforts against employers, foreign national fugitives, illegal immigrants and document fraud inside the United States. "Focusing on just one rivulet of this flood is missing the point."

Among pro-immigration advocates, the changes "put a Band-Aid on a broken leg," said Christina DeConcini, director of policy at the National Immigration Forum. With the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the United States at nearly 12 million and growing by perhaps 500,000 a year, the nation can't enforce its way out of the problem, Ms. DeConcini said.

Homeland Security wants a 1988 court injunction lifted that exempts El Salvadorans from expedited removal. The United States also wants China to take back 40,000 nationals, beginning with 675 who are in detention.Federal judges blame a 2002 decision by then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to "streamline" deportation proceedings, which sparked an unexpected backlog in federal appeals courts. Deportation appeals grew from a 3.2 percent share of appellate cases in 2000 to 18 percent in 2005.

Nor could the Border Patrol immediately send non-Mexicans back to Mexico, like most of the people it catches each year, who are free to simply try to cross the border again. Mexico does not accept other countries' nationals, forcing the agency to house them at an annual cost of $35,000 per bed.

Take them back to the border and tell them to walk south. If mexico allowed them to cross into the U.S., they can cross back to their home countries.

Many years ago Castro unloaded his prisons and sent them all to the U.S. At that time Iran was in need of hostages. Carter missed his opportunity.

Iraq needs hostages.

Federal statistics show the result, which has enraged border communities. Once arrested and released, the number of aliens who failed to appear in court more than tripled from 29,550 in 2003 to 97,868 in 2005, or 60 percent of cases, up from 32 percent.

I am sure they are all doing "nice little" jobs that Americans won't do

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