This is going to be a real shocker — or not. You know those tens of thousands of illegal immigrant families who came streaming over the border all summer — the ones the Obama administration has been ever so reluctant to talk about? The ones Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson insisted were going to be deported?
Well, in a confidential meeting with immigration advocates — a meeting the Associated Press got an audio tape of — Homeland Security officials acknowledged that about 70 percent of those who managed to get into this country illegally also managed not to report to immigration authorities and could now be just about anywhere.
The AP calculated that means about 41,000 members of immigrant families who entered illegally are, well, now calling the United States home. Some of those — most of whom came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — might legitimately have been eligible for asylum. But it now seems unlikely they will ever bother to make that case when they can so easily disappear into the heartland.
Even more distressing was the disclosure that of 860 families caught at the border and actually subject to final deportation (likely because it was not their first time being caught entering illegally) only 14 had reported to authorities as ordered. That’s even below the usual rate. According to the Justice Department’s Office for Immigration Review, an average of 25 percent of immigrants facing deportation fail to show up for court hearings.
When the Obama administration fails to respond to repeated requests for real numbers on how many of those illegal immigrants remain here, there’s usually a good reason. Now we know.
