WH Knew of 'Catch and Release' Months Before Released Illegal Was Arrested for Murder

Three months before the Obama administration released an illegal immigrant from Central America who would later bludgeon a woman to death, President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security was warned that its “catch and release” policy on illegal aliens only encouraged more of them to make the journey to America. 

In March of 2014, a research team from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) sent a 41-page report to the Department of Homeland Security that “raised alarms about the federal government’s capacity to manage” the border crisis they concluded would get worse, according to the Washington Post. 

In that report, researchers warned that migrants and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) were aware of the “relative lack of consequences they will receive when apprehended at the U.S. border.” The report noted that “smugglers of family members of UACs understand that once a UAC is apprehended for illegal entry into the United States, the individual will be re-united with a U.S. based family member pending the disposition of the immigration hearing.”

“This process appears to be exploited by illegal alien smugglers and family members in the United States who wish to reunite with separated children,” the researchers wrote.

As Breitbart Texas first reported, Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas, who “entered the U.S. illegally with children and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol agents” in June, “was processed and released, as are all illegal immigrants who come as unaccompanied minors or incomplete family units from Central America.”

Monterroso-Navas, who is from Honduras, was arrested for murder after being released with a notice to appear, which illegal immigrants have been mistaking for “permisos” that will allow them to indefinitely remain in the United States.

Nearly 60,000 illegal immigrant children have unlawfully entered the country since October of last year. Federal officials expect at least 150,000 more next year. Under a 2008 law, illegal immigrant children from Central America cannot be deported immediately like those from Mexico and Canada. They are often released with “notices to appear” and allowed to remain in the United States for what can be years until their immigration or asylum cases are resolved.