Immigration Crisis: 94% of Border Crossers Skip Court Hearings over 11-Week Period

Caroline May
October 31, 2014
Breitbart

Thousands of family units that recently entered the United States illegally failed to appear before immigration judges between July 18 and October 7 of this year.

Documents from the Executive Office of Immigration Review provided to the House Judiciary Committee this week and exclusively obtained by Breitbart News offer a brief snapshot into the failure of certain undocumented immigrants who’ve been released into the United States to appear in immigration court. 

According to the EOIR documents, in that two-and-a-half month period from mid-July to early October, immigration judges across the country rendered 3,885 decisions on removal cases dealing with “aliens” in family units. Of those decisions, 94 percent (3,661) were made “in absentia,” or the alien’s failure to appear resulted in an order of removal. 

The document also showed that 9,874 cases were still pending over those months. 

Also during that same brief snapshot of time, there were 9,274 first hearings scheduled for unaccompanied minors. An EOIR document shows that of the 9,170 cases that appeared before a judge, there were 7,330 adjournments, 436 venue changes, and 1,404 decisions rendered.

Of the 1,404 decisions, 1,229 unaccompanied minors were ordered removed, 1,148 of which were made in absentia, or their order for removal resulted from a failure to show up.

This year the southern border experienced a massive wave of illegal immigration from unaccompanied minors and family units. The situation reached a fever pitch in the spring and summer months as the government strained to cope with the influx.

Overall, the fiscal year saw apprehensions of 68,541 unaccompanied minors and 68,445 family units illegally entering the U.S. Many of the apprehended unaccompanied minors and family units were simply released in the U.S with a notice to appear in court. 

The new EOIR data comes a little over a month after the Associated Press pinned the number of family units who failed to report back to immigration agents at 70 percent.