Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz (D-TX)

Border Security: the Dangers Among Us

There is a dangerous practice ongoing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Currently, the United States does not have room to hold the large number of illegal immigrants caught by border law enforcement.

So, we are releasing – on their own recognizance (OR), into the population of the United States – very large numbers of illegal immigrants. Very few released immigrants return for a mandatory deportation, meaning there is a large number of illegal immigrants at large in the U.S., immigrants who have passed through the hands of law enforcement.

Border law enforcement officers routinely call the detention centers, discover there is no more room to hold immigrants, so immigrants are processed and released (OR). This practice is known informally along the border, as “Catch and Release.”

These illegal immigrants are given a “Notice to appear,” paperwork that allows them to travel freely in the United States though the time they are to return for deportation. Law enforcement officers then take the released illegal immigrants to the local bus station by the vanload, where they head elsewhere in the U.S.

The number of “absconders” – those who never appear for deportation – is over 90% of those released, a number now estimated to be approaching 75,000.

The Southern Border is literally under siege, and there is the real possibility that terrorists can – or already are – exploiting this series of holes in our law enforcement system along the southern border. These are the things we know. There is no way of even guessing how many others are entering the country, but who are not passing through the hands of government law enforcement officers.

This is a clear and present danger inside the United States, and the number of released illegal immigrants not returning for deportation grows by the hundreds each week. This is willfully ignoring a complex problem that undermines our national objective: to take the war to the enemy so we do not have to fight the war on terror inside our country.

Our budget reflects the values and priorities of the American people. Consider what the 2005 budget did not include:

• The Intelligence Reform bill that became law in December, 2004, mandated 10,000 Border Patrol agents over 5 years, 2,000 annually. The budget written by the President in February 2005, only funded 210 BP agents.
• Intelligence Reform mandated an increase of 8,000 beds in detention facilities annually for the next 5 years, still not nearly enough to hold all those coming in the U.S. … yet the budget proposal provides for only about 1,900 new detention space beds – over 6,000 beds short of the congressional mandate passed in December, 2004.
• Grants to reimburse local law enforcement officers that also hold illegal immigrants for the federal government were slashed, adding to the problem.

Related Links:

KGBT TV in Harlingen, Texas, offered footage of OTMs being released at the local bus station

The McAllen Monitor illustrates the numbers of illegal immigrants that do not return for deportation

Border Caucus Chairmen Protest release of Captured Immigrants

Ortiz shows Members holes in border security

Transforming the Southern Border, a report detailing the mirad of improvements we can make to overhaul and improve the security of the border

Ortiz testimony regarding border security

Ortiz Border Security Bill (summary of bill)