Investor's Business Daily
After 9-11, Congress learned the old INS was napping while a shocking 314,000 fugitive aliens, many of them violent felons, roamed the country free. Good thing those days are gone, huh? Guess again.
Other than the INS' name, not much has changed. ICE, the new Department of Homeland Security branch dedicated to catching and removing such criminal absconders, has barely put a dent in the problem. Though ICE caught a record 11,000 fugitive aliens last year, the absconder total has climbed to 465,000.
Absconders are foreigners who were ordered deported after breaking U.S. immigration laws, but then fled before they could be removed. In other words, they were released from custody and trusted to appear for removal, as if an illegal alien weren't inherently a flight risk and would never think of making a run for it.
Posted by Richard at October 27, 2005