Many illegals who cross into the United States cannot easily be sent back to their home countries, especially if they do not come from Mexico. Nor is there any jail space to hold them. So what do we do? We release them on their own recognizance. It is estimated that about 6000 people received this treatment last year. Here is the story.
The released receive orders to show up at deportation hearings. 86 percent do not show up, hardly a surprise, I am amazed that 14 percent do show up. What are they hoping for, a green card? Or have they already soured on life in the U.S.? Many Brazilians are intentionally surrending, simply to get such a notice for a deportation hearing.
I am not part of the growing movement of market-oriented but anti-immigration economists and commentators. iSteve.com and ParaPundit.com argue for this view at length, the Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute people sometimes push a related line. In any case stories like these show that something is surely wrong with our immigration policies, no matter where you stand on the broader issues. The sad irony is that in the short run, the policies probably aid our ability to fight terrorism. By releasing the “obviously harmless” candidates, we have more real resources to identify terrorist crossings. If we dealt with every such person, the INS would be crippled.
What then should we do? There have been successful experiments with electronic monitoring bracelets, but the dangers are obvious. I’ll spend a bit more time pondering creative solutions to immigration-related problems, and pass along what I come up with.
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