{"id":24032,"date":"2021-01-08T10:56:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T15:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24032"},"modified":"2021-01-08T12:52:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T17:52:58","slug":"biden-make-border-crisis-worse-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/01\/08\/biden-make-border-crisis-worse-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the Biden Administration Take a Stand Against Catch and Release?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
As the country prepares for the incoming presidential administration, one question Americans should be asking is what President-elect Joe Biden intends to do to stop the rising surge of <\/a>apprehensions <\/a>at the Southwest Border. One major project he could tackle is closing a loophole that has allowed illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, even after being apprehended by immigration authorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report highlighting the adverse effects of allowing alien families and dubious asylum-seeking migrants to wait in the United States for their immigration court dates, also known as the \u201ccatch and release\u201d policy. The Fiscal Year 2020 Enforcement Lifecycle Report<\/a> affirms the long-standing concerns about the procedure. The document details the enforcement outcomes for aliens entering across the Southwest Border between Fiscal Years 2014 and 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According\nto DHS, 3.5 million apprehensions occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border in the\nfive-year span. Of those: 51 percent, or 1.8 million aliens were repatriated. The\nremaining 49 percent, or 1.7 million aliens, had no confirmed departure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of those:\n1.7 million aliens were not removed; 8.1 percent had been granted relief from deportation.\nThe remaining 40.9 percent, or 695,300 remain in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An\nestimated 1 million apprehended migrants were classified as \u201cfamily unit aliens,\u201d\nwhich are parents or legal guardians and children traveling together. Only 6\npercent of these people were repatriated; the remaining 94 percent are residing\nin the United States. Similarly, unaccompanied alien children had an even lower\ndeportation rate of 4.3 percent; the remaining 96 percent had no confirmed\ndeparture date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Steph<\/a>e<\/a>n Dinan<\/a> of The Washington Times<\/em> pointed out, family units have a lesser chance of being repatriated by DHS. Dinan also found that many illegal aliens released into the United States never show up<\/a> for their court hearings. Even aliens who attended their immigration hearings and received removal orders were often released and subsequently did not show up for their final removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President-elect Biden has signaled<\/a> he plans to scrap existing asylum policies that have helped mitigate<\/a> the negative effects of catch and release. Moving forward with that strategy will almost certainly lead to an even larger backlog in asylum applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, large numbers of illegal aliens entering and eventually staying in the United States would exacerbate the burden mass migration has on the American people. According to a FAIR report<\/a>, illegal aliens cost American taxpayers $131.9 billion annually. Americans should not be footing the bill for immigration law violators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration and Congress will have the opportunity to codify a legislative solution<\/a> to catch and release. A step in the right direction would be passing a bill that would supersede the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement<\/a>, the impetus for catch and release. Under Flores, unaccompanied alien minors in immigration detention must be released to a parent or guardian without delay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n