Officials from the National Border Patrol Council last week broke their silence to claim that the “catch and release” policies used by the Obama administration are responsible for encouraging undocumented immigrants to cross the border into the United States illegally while being a hindrance to Border Patrol operations.
The Council has a letter in which it states that a high ranking member of President Barack Obama’s administration told Border Patrol agents that there is no intention of having undocumented immigrants who are told to appear in court upon release removed from the United States. The American Federation of Government Employees (National Border Council) president, Brandon Judd, says in the letter from March 21 that Alejandro Mayorkas, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, met with him and two other agents in order to talk about concerns over undocumented immigrants being allowed to be released into the US due to government policy.
The meeting, which took place on August 26, 2015, apparently saw Mayorkas admit that the Obama administration does not intend to remove the undocumented immigrants who crossed the border during the latest surge, according to the letter.
The letter claims that Mayorkas pointed out that immigration courts in the US already have a backlog of between three to six years and that it was pointless issuing Notice to Appear to immigrants the administration has no intention of deporting. Judd slams the President for undermining the country’s immigration laws, while the local council president of Border Patrol, Chris Cabreka, adds that illegal border crossers face no consequences.