Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley have begun releasing illegal aliens from custody without issuing a return court date due to limited space in already-overwhelmed holding facilities, Fox News confirmed on Sunday.
According to a senior source with Customs and Border Protection, the agency instructed Border Patrol to give any migrants who claim asylum and are apprehended in the valley near-immediate releases “because there is no space to hold people even to do necessary [Notice to Appear] paperwork.” Instead of requiring migrants to get a notice to appear in court to determine if they will be deported, as normal CBP policy requires, all that is asked of those whom Border Patrol plans to release is a biometric data scan at “temporary outdoor processing sites” that can be quickly added to the system.
On Monday, some migrants told NBC News they were “simply given identification documents that they were told to show local law enforcement if they were stopped while in the U.S.” without being asked for further information, including how to contact them for an immigration hearing. Others said they were asked for their contact information and told they would be reached about a potential court date within 30 days of their release.
The decision, official documents say, is “intended to mitigate operational challenges, including risks to national security, during significant surges of illegal migration as currently exist in the Rio Grande Valley” by forcing people out of custody to alleviate space and resources, but the newest instructions also follow a “dire” influx of thousands of aliens crossing the southern border into the United States, overloading some detention facilities in the Rio Grande Valley by as much as 700 percent overcapacity.
