Undocumented immigrants caught in recent weeks likely to be deported
by Kaylee HeckWednesday, August 23rd 2017
EL PASO, Texas — Multiple groups of undocumented immigrants have been caught in the Borderland in the last two weeks, with many of them smuggled in the back of semitrucks.
Immigration attorney Orlando Mondragon said it’s a complicated process once undocumented immigrants are caught. A big part of what happens is if the person apprehended has a criminal history.
“If you can’t show you have ties to (the U.S.), they’ll do what’s called expedited removal, which means the agent who apprehends you at the time will sign paperwork that says once you’re done with any criminal punishment, you’re sent right back,” Mondragon said.
Melissa Lopez with the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Service, a legal aid clinic, thinks most people caught in recent weeks will be deported.
“I imagine that the majority of them probably have received some form of that expedited removal because it’s the quickest way for the government to not have to go through additional processes,” she said.
Even with expedited removal, Lopez said cases in El Paso can take an average of three to five years because the immigration court has one of the highest volumes of cases in the country.
Lopez thinks rhetoric in Washington, D.C., is making people think they have to come across the border illegally.
“I think we’re going to continue to see cases like these where people are going to continue to go to the smugglers because they feel the administration has cut off the legal and lawful routes they typically would have taken,” Lopez said.
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