During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Maryland earlier this year, President Trump — repeating a theme he has said before — expressed his intention to end the practice called “catch and release.” The term refers to a practice where an illegal migrant is released into the community while he or she awaits hearings in immigration court, rather than being held in a detention facility.
“We want to end Catch and Release. We catch them, we realize they are a criminal, we have to release them,” Trump said on March 3. “Think of this, they come onto our land … we now have to take them through a massive court trial. Who does this? Other countries say ‘Get the hell out of here.’”
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Despite the strong rhetoric, however, the practice of “catch and release” has not only continued but is being expanded to areas far from the borders where the aliens illegally entered our country.
Last March, Trump criticized the Catch and Release program, but the bipartisan spending bill he signed expanded what is known as “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) programs, and provided additional funding for federal immigration officials to release border crossers and illegal aliens into the country.
An AP report on May 23 noted that illegal aliens are being sent to places far from the border, such as Florida, Michigan and New York, so they can be processed before being moved on to their destination, which could be anywhere in the United States.
The report observed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) previously ensured that families had travel plans before releasing them, but last year it shortened custody stays in response to the growing numbers of arrivals from Mexico.
Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which turns over illegal border crossers to ICE after arresting them, has begun flying migrants to other cities for processing and is releasing them directly into communities without going through ICE, explaining their detention facilities are filled to capacity.
Officials in Florida became alarmed when they learned that the federal government planned to fly 1,000 border crossers from El Paso, Texas, to two Florida counties per month to be processed and released into the community. “I was scared they were going to come here and live in tents,” said Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen. “It’s not that we are not welcoming. We are welcoming, we are inclusive, but we don’t have resources for these people at this point.”
AP reported that Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis got on the phone on May 25 with President Donald Trump, who assured him that ICE would not overburden Florida with illegal aliens.
Breitbart News reported on May 22 that it had obtained statistics showing that between May 14 and May 21, DHS released about 7,900 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the United States. This amounted to about 1,000 border crossers and illegal aliens being released by federal officials every day over that period.
Photo: AP Images
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