usatoday.com
FLORENCE, Ariz. — Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Central and South America, are being released into the USA almost immediately after they are picked up by the Border Patrol as part of a policy that U.S. officials acknowledge represents a significant gap in homeland security. The treatment of illegal immigrants from Mexico has not changed. U.S. Border Patrol agents continue to catch and deport waves of Mexican illegals, who last year accounted for most of the 905,000 people caught sneaking into the USA along the 2,000-mile Southwestern border.
But deporting illegals from countries other than Mexico — known here as "OTMs" — is far more complicated. Several Central and South American governments have been reluctant to accept groups of people for repatriation. And the Department of Homeland Security, while spending billions of dollars on a range of anti-terrorist programs, has a limited budget for renting detention cells at local jails.
The result: With no place to put thousands of captured illegals from Central and South America, the Border Patrol has begun releasing them after giving them written orders to appear at deportation hearings in nearby U.S. cities. Immigration officials acknowledge the exercise is futile: About 86% of those issued such notices never show up for the court hearings.
In a procedure that has been ridiculed by local law enforcement officials and even some Border Patrol agents, the agents are told to make sure that illegal immigrants provide U.S. addresses and contact telephone numbers before they are released. The information is supposed to be included on copies of the immigration court notices.
But local law enforcement officials who have reviewed dozens of the notices say that many illegals provide false addresses or none at all. That leaves U.S. authorities with few clues about where to look for the illegals if they fail to appear in court.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that in 2003, as many as 6,000 illegals entered the USA under the government's "catch and release" policy. Officials in U.S. border towns and other critics say the policy threatens local residents' safety and undermines security along the Southwestern border at a time when counterterrorism officials believe al-Qaeda operatives could be focusing on Mexico as an entry point to the USA.
"The Border Patrol is admitting to me that they don't have a clue about who these people really are or what kind of threat they might pose," says D'Wayne Jernigan, the sheriff in Val Verde County, Texas. "During these times when everybody's concerned about who's coming into this country, I think you have to question the wisdom of this policy."
The "catch and release" policy has existed for several years but has become particularly evident since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led U.S. officials to tighten border security. Click here for complete story