GOP Senators Demand Answers Over Spike in Migrant Cases Dismissed by Courts as Docs Not Filed In Time; GOP Senators Press Homeland Security Chief on Why 63,500 Cases Against Illegal Aliens Were Dropped

GOP senators demand answers over spike in migrant cases dismissed by courts as docs not filed in time:

Seven Republican senators are urging the Biden administration to review its policies and processes related to the release of migrants into the U.S. after it emerged that tens of thousands have had their cases thrown out of immigration court as officials did not file the necessary documents in time.

“Little information has been provided regarding why this mistake is occurring and how DHS will remedy it,” the seven senators, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., say in the letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Migrants apprehended at the southern border after entering the U.S. illegally in many cases are released into the U.S. with a notice to appear (NTA), which gives them a court date and address to appear for their immigration hearings. NTAs are then submitted to the immigration court by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) using data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

But the use of NTAs has increased in line with a massive surge in migration over the last two years. There were more than 1.7 million migrant encounters in FY 2021 and more than 2.3 million in FY 2022. With that, Border Patrol agents have been given access to a scheduling system that both schedules a hearing and gives a copy to the migrant.

With a massive surge of numbers at the southern border that began in the Spring of last year, the number of NTAs being given and migrants being released into the U.S. also surged, often overwhelming Border Patrol agents and officials. Agents have been given the authority to use a scheduling system that schedules the hearing at the court, while producing a copy to the migrant. —>READ MORE HERE

GOP Senators Press Homeland Security Chief on Why 63,500 Cases Against Illegal Aliens Were Dropped:

The failure of the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security to carry out the most basic enforcement of U.S. immigration laws has led to skyrocketing crime and drug deaths, a Republican senator told The Daily Signal.

“While illegal immigration and the resulting fentanyl overdose deaths and violent crime continue to skyrocket, the Biden administration must immediately stop its abdication of basic immigration enforcement,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said Tuesday in a written statement.

“Too many lives and livelihoods hang in the balance,” Hagerty told The Daily Signal.

A day earlier, Hagerty led a letter in which he and six other Republican senators pressed embattled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to explain why more than 63,500 removal cases against illegal immigrants were dismissed in 2022 because the department failed to issue proper documents.

The Department of Homeland Security failed to properly file tens of thousands of “Notice to Appear” documents, also known as NTAs, to illegal immigrants before their scheduled court hearings.

A Notice to Appear is part of the DHS catch-and-release policy, which obligates an illegal alien to show up for a date with an immigration court if he or she isn’t detained.

“What caused this substantial spike in incidences of DHS officials not filing an NTA after you took office and, consequently, tens of thousands of immigration cases against illegal aliens being dismissed because of DHS’s failure to file paperwork?” the letter to Mayorkas from the seven Senate Republicans says. —>READ MORE HERE

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