Migrant murders put American communities on edge as over 1.4 million avoid deportation with shady tactics
1.4 million immigrants who have court orders to leave the country still reside in the U.S.. An immigration researcher says it took "decades of bad policy" to get to this point.
Americans murdered at the hands of illegal immigrants have left communities throughout the United States on edge as more than 1.4 million people have avoided deportation orders amid the country's border crisis.
The fact that 1.4 million illegal immigrants still remain in the United States after getting formal deportation orders from federal judges shows just how "unserious" the Biden administration is about the country's migrant crisis, an immigration scholar told Fox News Digital.
Of that 1.4 million, only about 13,000 are behind bars. As of July 2023, an estimated 11.7 million illegal immigrants resided in the U.S., according to the Center of Migration Studies of New York.
The issue has concerned residents throughout the U.S., as Americans such as Laken Riley, Lizbeth Medina, Jocelyn Nungaray and Rachel Morin have been killed over the past two years, all allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants.
"It took decades of neglect and bad public policy, coupled with four years of unprecedented illegal immigration, to get here," Steven Camarota, the director of research for the Center of Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital. "You can't reverse it in four years."
"But could [the Trump administration] in effect fulfill a campaign process? Absolutely," he continued.
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Former Border Patrol Council head Brandon Judd told Fox News Digital the number didn't come as a surprise.
"We've known this forever," he said. "I've been on record many times saying that once somebody gets here, they're never going to leave this country. And the reason is, is because the vast majority of them won't show up [for their court date]."
Camarota explained that after a migrant's application for asylum or appeal is rejected, a judge issues a "final order of removal."
"We typically don't put you in the courtroom, give you your order of removal and then lock you in irons . . . if you're not in detention, you're going to get notified in a letter," Camarota said. "[Therefore] we have addresses, we have places of work – we have information about them."
Camarota conceded that many illegal immigrants supply false addresses – but those hoping to receive benefits or to hear back on their requests for asylum or work permits will supply real addresses to maintain correspondence.
"How do you have the immigration system that has judges go through this whole procedure and then most of the people they say ‘No’ to are not made to go home?" Camarota continued.
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"If they're going to get a benefit, if they're going to be able to get a work permit, if they're going to be able to get documentation, get a driver's license, they'll show up to their appointments," Judd said. "But once it comes to that final deportation hearing, that hearing where they have to prove that they have a legitimate claim to be here in the United States, that's when they don't show up."
The 1.4 million number may be daunting, Camarota said, but "over the course of the administration, you could cut that number in half, or by a third."
Starting with these "deportation absconders," Camarota said, is the logical first step. Although mass deportation will cause a wave of "all kinds of lawsuits," he said, those who have flouted court orders will "have very little legal recourse."
"That doesn't mean you're not going to see some federal judge somewhere say something," he said. "But the higher courts are going to stop them."
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The vast majority of illegal immigrants don't apply for asylum, Camarota said – "what they want is to be released."
Once illegal immigrants are released into the country to await court dates, Camarota said, "that information that you're releasing people get back to their home countries at the speed of light."
But conversely, stronger border policies could reduce numbers of incoming illegal immigrants, and could see more return home voluntarily to avoid deportation.
"Three-hundred thousand to 500,000 go home on their own each year – it's a family situation, their families are sick, they saved enough money, they don't like it [in the U.S.], their wife wants them to come home, whatever reason," the researcher said. "If you could double that number, you could get close to a million people going home on their own."
While Camarota said that enforcement efforts should start with absconders and those who have committed crimes, because "you have to start somewhere," Judd said that starting at the border to prevent a further influx would be the opportune strategy.
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"If we sent immigration judges to the border immediately and do what's called ‘last in, first out,’ forget about our current docket, stop the bleeding right now, go down there and once somebody crosses our border illegally, have that deportation proceeding, immediately have that asylum hearing immediately, and then if they don't qualify, then remove them immediately," Judd said. "What we have to do [now] is we have to stop the bleeding at the border, and then we can target those people here in the United States."
Judd said the Trump administration could make a dent in the number of formally deported immigrants "if Congress would pass... proper laws."
"If Congress were to pass laws that say you can't have a sanctuary city, which they have the right to pass, if they state that the police must comply with immigration detainers [and] police must comply with federal immigration officers. If Congress would pass laws like that, then yeah, we absolutely could make a huge dent in the number of people that we have in this country illegally," he said.
The White House could not be reached for comment.
