Ice Ends Detainment of 375,000 Undocumented Immigrants Who Arrived with Their Families in the US
Reuters

Out of the 473,682 undocumented immigrants detained after crossing the US-Mexico Southern Border with their family, at least 375,000 were freed. The group of people was freed by federal law enforcement to live in the US, reported by the Washington Examiner.

The patrol agents of the US-Mexican border had arrested 851,508 individuals who had attempted to illegally cross the border from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019.

Additionally, out of the undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. with their family 76,000 were unaccompanied minors.

According to a report from Washington Examiner, border patrol agents told that they had released at least 145,000 family members from March to September 2019. These were the months where the total number of illegal entry and arrests to the United States of America was at its peak.

Where Will They Go?

The freed illegal immigrants were allowed to reside anywhere in the United States. This rule is also applicable to those who were not planning to seek asylum in the country.

The Border Patrol is housed in the Customs Border Protection. The Customs Border Protection did not provide the public with any data about the total number of arrests who were seeking asylum. However, the Department of Homeland Security officials revealed last year that it has a low percentage.

It was an unusual move for Border Patrol in March for freeing individuals from their detainment. It was expected that the Border Patrol should surrender their arrested individuals to the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Issues with the Detainment of Families

ICE identified two issues that provide difficulties in detaining families. The first issue is the insufficiency of bed space. The second issue is a court ruling that prohibits ICE from detaining families exceeding 20 days.

The Condition for Being Set Free

Due to the failure of Border Patrol to transfer the 145,000 families to ICE, they were released from detainment and was provided with a legal document called 'notice to appear.'

The 'notice to appear' document states that the families are required to appear before a hearing. The hearing will determine whether they will be brought back to their country of origin or will be allowed to remain in the United States.

From Border Patrol to ICE

Additionally, 230,000 undocumented immigrant families were detained by ICE and are now freed from ICE facilities.

Border Patrol had a total of 373,770 transfers of people to ICE's custody.

An ICE representative revealed that ICE does not track every individual out of the 373,770 arrested people who came from the custody of Border Patrol.

ICE had already deported 267,258 undocumented immigrants in 2019. This total included the 5,702 individuals who arrived in the country with at least 1 family member and the 6,351 unaccompanied minors. The remaining people were single adults who were arrested at the southern part of the US-Mexico border.

The 375,000 freed illegal immigrants are part of the 3.2 million who were released by the federal immigration authorities. These people are awaiting a court trial for the decision involving their removal or non-removal in the country.