NBC News: Administration Leaves Released Migrants in ‘Legal Limbo’
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 22, 2023
In a recent post, I explained that one of the great mysteries of the Biden administration’s catch-and-release policies is how long DHS is waiting before it places the hundreds of thousands of migrants it has caught and released at the Southwest border into removal proceedings. NBC News has reported that the migrants themselves are asking more or less the same question.
The INA Detention Mandate and “Notices to Appear”. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) mandates that DHS detain all illegal entrants from the point at which they are caught until they are either granted asylum or removed.
Between FY 2013 and FY 2019, DHS at least attempted to comply with that detention mandate. Of the more than 3.5 million aliens encountered at the Southwest border during that period, just short of two million — 57 percent — remained detained, about 773,000 (22 percent) were detained and released, and just around 749,000 (21 percent) were never detained.
There were three main reasons why aliens would have been detained and released or not detained at all during that time.
First, and notwithstanding that statutory detention mandate, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a decision in 2005 allowing border migrants in detention to seek release from immigration judges on bond.
https://cis.org/Arthur/NBC-News-Administration-Leaves-Released-Migrants-Legal-Limbo
