‘Catch-and-release’ is reality for now
Eliminating voluntary returns in the Southwest border’s busiest sector is still a long way off, despite the U.S. Border Patrol’s intentions.
Officials in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector have been trumpeting plans to put an end to the practice, often described as “catch-and-release,” by replacing it with special prosecution initiatives that would send illegal immigrants home with a record of formal removal.
Currently, however, they fall well short of that goal because of the volume of illegal immigration through the sector. And, prosecuting more illegal border crossers under the agency’s special initiatives will be an arduous task because of limitations beyond the Border Patrol’s control.
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“Obviously, the Border Patrol could go to 100 with no problems, but we have to make sure our partners can handle it,” Allen said.
Therein lies the major hurdle to ending voluntary return.
Each of the agency’s programs designed to give formal removals instead of voluntary returns is currently limited.
In the agency’s lateral repatriation program — in which private buses haul up to 100 illegal immigrants a day to El Centro or San Diego, Calif., in an attempt to break the smuggling cycle — the agency is reluctant to increase the daily total because it doesn’t want to burden border communities or other Border Patrol sectors, Allen said. An increase has been considered but nothing is set, he said.
In the agency’s quick court program, the immigration judge who orders formal removals for as many as 30 illegal immigrants a day, Monday through Friday, has a full docket and can’t handle any more cases, Allen said.
Border Patrol agents also have the authority to administer “expedited removals” to anyone arrested within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of entry, which sends illegal immigrants home via a formal deportation. But this action can take as long as two hours for an agent and requires a sworn statement, a series of questions and must be reviewed by two other officials, he said.
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