The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is releasing more than 200 border crossers and illegal aliens a day at the current catch and release rates, according to federal data.
After a soaring decline following the implementation of President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy where foreign nationals seeking asylum are mandated to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed, DHS officials seem to have stabilized the catch and release of illegal aliens at a rate of releasing about 208 a day.
Between July 23 and August 26, DHS released 7,700 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S. This is a slight increase in the level of catch and release compared to the weeks of July 10 to July 22 where an average of about 192 border crossers and illegal aliens were being released into the country every day. At the time, this represented an 85 percent drop in catch and release compared to levels before the Remain in Mexico policy was enacted.
The catch and release process often entails federal immigration officials busing border crossers into nearby border cities — as well as flying them into the interior of the country — and dropping them off with the hope they show up for their immigration and asylum hearings.
The overwhelming majority of border crossers and illegal aliens are never deported from the country once they are released into the U.S. Today, there are anywhere between 11 million and 22 million illegal aliens living across the country — the majority of which are concentrated in states like California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Illinois.
In the last month, the majority of border crossers and illegal aliens, about 4,100, were released into the U.S. were dropped off in San Antonio, Texas. Another 1,200 were released in El Paso, Texas while 1,500 were released in Phoenix, Arizona and 900 were released in San Diego.
Since December 21, 2018, DHS has released about 224,700 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S.
Most recently, the Trump administration issued a regulation to attempt to end the catch and release provisions in the Flores Settlement Agreement which now allows federal immigration officials to hold migrant children and the adult border crossers they arrived with until their asylum hearings.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants with the overwhelming majority, nearly 70 percent, coming through the process known as “chain migration,” whereby newly naturalized citizens are allowed to bring an unlimited number of foreign nationals to the country. The mass inflow of legal immigrants is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who are added to the U.S. population annually.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.