Migrant Released Into US Told to Check in With ICE 8 Years Later
Amid the growing migrant crisis, a migrant processed into the US as an asylum seeker was given a check-in date to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in New York for eight years from today.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, began sending buses of migrants to Democratic-led "sanctuary cities," which protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, in 2022 amid growing frustration about a rise in encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Typically, migrants who are released from immigration custody are given by ICE an official court date and a mandatory check-in date and other regular appointments, to confirm the migrant is still living at the same location and that they are not a security risk. But as some sections of the border are becoming too overwhelmed with processing new arrivals, thousands of migrants have instead been given check-in dates with ICE years later.
On Wednesday, Bill Melugin a national correspondent for Fox News took to X, formerly Twitter, to report a "Colombian woman who crossed illegally into El Paso, Texas and was released into the U.S. was given an ICE check-in date in NYC in 2031," adding that her immigration attorney, Matthew Kolken said "it's one of the most shocking things he's seen in his nearly 30 years of immigration law."
"Kolken tells me his client is a legitimate asylum seeker with what he feels is an air tight case, but because the system is so backlogged with illegitimate asylum claims, he's not sure they'll ever get a chance to argue it in court with her next check in 8 years into the future," Melugin wrote on X.
"It made me realize the Biden administration is basically providing backdoor amnesty for anyone who wants to show up at the border," Kolken said, according to Melugin.
Newsweek has reached out to ICE and Kolken via email for comment.
According to the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, a nonprofit organization aiming to provide asylum seekers with legal and community support, as of spring 2023 some ICE offices are scheduling first appointments or follow-up appointments many years in the future.
The project adds that asylum seekers should check the immigration court system every week to see if they have been scheduled for a hearing in immigration court despite having a check-in appointment in the future.
This is not the first time the backlog in processing the influx of migrants has caused delays.
Similar migrant cases have been given immigration court dates more than a decade away. In Brownsville, Texas, migrants who arrived in the U.S. in May showed paperwork with designated court dates set as late as 2032 and 2035 in Chicago and Florida, according to the New York Post.
In May, backlogs at immigration courts stood at 2.1 million cases waiting to be heard, as of December the Immigration Court backlog passed 3 million pending cases, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) report.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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