U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to issue documents to over 78,000 illegal aliens who were released into the United States without being given court dates first, the Daily Caller reports.
The plan for mass distribution of these documents is called “Operation Horizon.” The documents, which include notices to appear in court, will outline the procedures for how these illegals can make their case, before an immigration judge, for why they should be allowed to stay in the country and not be deported. Most of the illegals in question were released without being properly processed first.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is mailing charging documents to place noncitizens in removal proceedings who have been paroled or released under prosecutorial discretion by Customs and Border Protection (CBP),” ICE said in a statement to the press. “Noncitizens are being directed to their closest ICE Field Office and will be processed using the information collected by CBP as evidence of citizenship and removability.”
Illegals who fail to appear in court by their given date can be eligible for deportation. Although such notices are often given to illegals immediately after they cross the southern border, immigration authorities are still so overwhelmed by the flood of illegals coming across the border that they could not issue notices to every single one; each individual notice to appear takes between 60 to 90 minutes to prepare.
Data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows that as many as 1.7 million illegal aliens were encountered by border authorities between September 2020 and September 2021. About 61 percent of the illegals who were taken into custody were ultimately deported.