Washington, D.C. (July 20, 2021) – A Center for Immigration Studies analysis examines the Biden Administration’s termination of the issuing of Notices to Appear (NTAs), which provide the date and location of the required immigration court appearance, to aliens entering the United States. Instead of issuing NTAs upon entry, thousands of aliens have been instructed to show up to a field office operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days of entry and obtain an NTA from an ICE official.
Reports indicate that only about 18 percent to 23 percent of released aliens have complied with DHS’s instructions. According to data from ICE reported by the Washington Times, only 3,446 aliens have appeared at an ICE field office out of a population of 15,000 to 19,000 that should have. Despite thousands of illegal aliens with largely unknown backgrounds disappearing into the interior of the United States, the Biden administration has announced no plan for ICE or any other federal law enforcement agency to locate the fugitives.
Jon Feere, the Center’s director of investigations and a former ICE Chief of Staff, said, “Predictably, the overwhelming majority of illegal aliens allowed into the country have ignored the Biden administration’s request that they seek out ICE officers. Is this new policy an intentional effort by the Biden administration to flood the United States with more illegal immigration? It appears likely that every illegal alien will be allowed to live in the United States indefinitely, unless Congress demands DHS issue all NTAs at the border and immediately seek out and expel those who have failed to comply.”
Feere continued, “The lack of interest in obtaining a court date suggests that most of the illegal aliens crossing the border do not have valid asylum claims and that the majority have no respect for America’s rule of law.”
This influx of fugitives is occurring as detention of aliens arrested by ICE officers in the interior of the United States is low and falling quickly. A
review of ICE detention statistics for FY 2021 by the Center’s Resident Fellow in Law and Policy, Art Arthur finds the average daily detention population of ICE detainees who were apprehended by ICE in the interior in June 2021 clocked in at just 4,714 compared to almost 12,500 in October 2020. These statistics show that ICE enforcement in the interior has been all but eradicated by the Biden administration.
