DOJ: Nearly Half of Illegal Immigrant Juveniles Don't Show Up to Hearings

Nearly half of illegal immigrant juveniles do not show up for the hearings, according to a top Justice Department official.

At a Thursday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the $3.7 billion in supplemental funding that the Obama administration requested to deal with the crisis, Juan Osuna, the Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Justice Department, said the total pending case load for the federal government is 375,000 illegal immigrant juveniles. 

He said 46% of juveniles do not show up to their hearings. That percentage, though, could be higher since the administration does not have the exact numbers for illegal immigrant children who have recently received notices to appear before immigration officials and judges.

As Breitbart News has reported, there have been at least 57,000 illegal immigrant children who have unlawfully entered the country since October of last year, and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he expects a total of 90,000 to enter before October of this year. Federal officials have estimated that at least 150,000 more illegal immigrant children will attempt to enter the country in the next fiscal year.

Many illegal immigrant migrants have said they were coming to the United States to receive so-called “permisos” that they believe will allow them to remain indefinitely in the United States. Those “permisos” are notices to appear before immigration judges and officials by a certain time.