A Houston television station has confirmed that which has long been suspected – 96 percent of illegal alien families released on their own recognizance and ordered deported in recent months did not show up for their court dates.
This means those families are still living illegally within the U.S., and it falls to the Department of Homeland Security to track and deport the aliens, something officials have confessed can be "almost impossible."
The development was completely foreseeable.
In August, WND exclusively reported the U.S. government has known for nearly a decade that the vast majority of all illegal aliens released to the streets by immigration agencies fail to show up for their deportation hearings. Yet little has been done to rectify a problem that has now become a near national emergency.
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Houston's KPRC-TV, Channel 2, reported it spent six months trying to get the latest data from the U.S. government.
Finally, the Executive Office of Immigration Review gave the news channel the information about the percentage that failed to show up in court, prompting judges to order the removals "in absentia."
The Houston channel reported on the tens of thousands released on their own recognizance from detention centers because there was not enough holding space, with all the detainees being ordered to report for a future court hearing.
Of the over 30,467 families and unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, caught illegally crossing over the Southern border between July 18 and Oct. 28, 2014, only 22 percent have received a court decision about whether they can stay in the U.S. Most of those ordered removed cannot be found, since they didn't show up in court, reported KPRC.
Of the 15,614 families caught between July and October and not detained, 4,197 have been ordered removed from the U.S., but 96 percent of the orders were issued "in absentia," since the illegals failed to show up in court.
Of the 1,671 UACs ordered removed during the same time period, more than 92 percent failed to show up in court.
Watch the KPRC report below:
Illegals ditching hearings long-known to feds
As early as 1992, the U.S. government knew it had a problem with a significant portion of illegal aliens released on their own accord not showing up for their court dates.
Illegals crossing into the U.S. have known since at least the early 1990s that once they are released, most will likely face no real consequences for skipping immigration court appearances.
As early as Dec. 28, 1993, Knight-Ridder Newspapers reported the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the precursor to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had "lost control of its most effective weapon – deporting unwanted immigrants."
The newspaper reported specific examples of deported Mexicans who turned around and came back within days. It also reported that in 1992, a full 35 percent, or 25,000, illegal aliens released into the U.S. pending court dates did not appear for their deportation hearings.
"INS has no tracking system to find undocumented immigrants who don't show up," reported the newspaper.
Fast forward 12 years, and the problem worsened exponentially.
In June 2005, the Washington Times noted the U.S. government was releasing on their own recognizance about 70 percent of all so-called "other-than-Mexican" illegals captured along the Southern border. However, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told the Senate Judiciary Committee that year that few show up for their court dates.
One month later, the Times ran an editorial titled "The 'Other Than Mexican' Loophole," which noted that 70 percent of more than 98,000 non-Mexican nationals were captured and released with court dates.
"When the illegal 'other than Mexican' defendants are released immediately and then don't show up for immigration court, it's hard to deport them, obviously," the newspaper stated.
In September 2005, Jerry Seper of the Washington Times reported that only 13 percent of the "other than Mexicans" released with a "notice to appear" were showing up for their immigration hearing.
In March 2006, the San Bernardino County Sun quoted T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, warning the majority of those caught do not return for court appearances.
"Instead they disappear into the United States and become almost impossible to trace," the newspaper paraphrased Bonner as saying.
With research by Brenda J. Elliott.