GovernmentExecutive.com

The Homeland Security Department plans to stop releasing illegal immigrants into the United States by October, a senior official said Friday.

Greg Giddens, program manager for the department's Secure Border Initiative, told Government Executive he has been asked to end the "catch and release" practice by then.

A lack of detention bed space has forced the department to release non-Mexican illegal immigrants into the country if they do not have felony convictions and do not pose a threat to national security. Although these illegal immigrants are given a notice to appear in court for deportation proceedings, most never show up for their hearing.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall that the department is committed to ending the practice.

"Our goal at DHS is to completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant -- no exceptions," Chertoff said.

Giddens, who previously worked for the Coast Guard's Deepwater program to modernize equipment, said one of his primary goals this year is to develop the overall strategy to end catch and release, which includes decreasing the length of time illegal immigrants are held and increasing the bed space and working out the logistics needed to detain them.

DHS announced this week that it has expanded its expedited removal program to all border regions, which allows immigration enforcement agents to more quickly deport illegal aliens.

The department recently asked private sector companies for help securing the borders. DHS plans to issue a solicitation for that component of the border initiative in late March or early April, and to select a prime contractor by the end of September. The Customs and Border Protection bureau is managing that effort.

"We need a broad and comprehensive approach that addresses all components of border security, including staffing, infrastructure and, of course, technology," said CBP acting commissioner Deborah Spero. "There is no task, no project, no engagement more critical to our national security than this."

Department officials have indicated that the Secure Border Initiative will be a priority in the fiscal 2007 budget, which will be released on Monday.

The fiscal 2006 Homeland Security appropriations bill included $940 million to hire 1,000 more Border Patrol agents and an additional 250 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, and to pay for 1,920 new beds at detention facilities and eight fugitive operations teams.

COMMENTS

• Sorry Robert M., but your cluelessness fits right in with the Beltway ignorance--little experience with the illegal alien problem. First, that is the great myth forced on the shrinking middle class that the economy will fall apart without an endless supply of cheap labor. Second, illegal aliens don't take jobs that no American will perform, they force down the wages for the job until Americans cannot accept the job without Medicare, welfare, and free education, all of which illegal aliens enjoy without repercussions at the expense of children's future. What is at stake is quality of life, we clearly have a different standard than our illegal aliens. These aliens are here mostly for the money, some have families here and overseas or in Mexico. The parking lot security guard where I work has eleven kids by three women, and we pay for the ones here. We imported a poverty class and that has to be addressed at some point. GovExec.com reader Posted February 7, 2006 1:32 PM
• Detaining and deporting all illegal immigrants is a futile effort that wastes time and money. If such a pipe dream were carried out, we would have runaway inflation, rationing of many foods we take for granted and a loss of even more of our industry to foreign countries. Instead of making it difficult for people to enter and remain in our country, we need to be able monitor who is entering and remaining. Immigrants are a resource just like minerals or oil. We have to encourage private industry to develop ways to filter out the bad parts and properly utilize the good components just like extracting iron from ore. If we track the immigrants, allow them to hold certain jobs and educate them, it will become easier to prevent drugs and weapons from crossing our borders. Why not use them to help patrol our borders? It's a lot of territory for our border patrol to cover. Why not encourage them to find out who is bringing illegal drugs into our country? Reward them for helping our country instead of deporting them. Despite what unions preach, immigrants still take many of the jobs that most union members wouldn't want anyway. It's union politics. Robert M. Posted February 6, 2006 8:01 PM
• This story, and its predecessor (posted 2/2 re: DHS increasing capacity to detain/remove illegals) clearly shows how unimportant long-term investigations, aimed at identifying, disrupting and dismantling complex criminal enterprises, are in the new order of things. Just think about it: Almost $1 billion (emphasis) dollars, which includes only 250 criminal investigators for the entire United States in fiscal 2006. This will barely replace what we have lost to death, retirement, transfer to OGAs and resignations over the last year, and we're struggling to do anything at current levels now. But, here's DHS' priority: hire 1,000 BPAs (4 times the number of CIs) and increase bed space by 2,000 in an effort to look like DHS is actually doing something about the illegal alien problem (especially in an election year). In reality, it's like putting a Band-Aid on an amputation - no effect at all. Every increase of this sort has had zero effect on the influx of illegals. In fact, the problem is worse now than before 9/11 - go figure. CIs could get a lot more "bang for the buck," because CIs could do the work of getting to the root of the problem, rather than just treating the symptoms. However, President Bush and Congress don't see it this way, and have seemingly placed a large majority of the people's money on betting that "beefing up the frontline" will go further than choking off the lures that attract illegal immigrants: unscrupulous employers, criminal enterprises (e.g. prostitution rings), etc. However, when all is said and done, much, much more will be said than done. In the meanwhile, ICE agents, without a clear interior enforcement mission or mandate, and increasingly devoid of a Customs mission (does anyone remember that Customs is part of our name?), never mind the fact that we have zero resources (which are being sucked dry by these very types of programs and projects), surf the net daily seeking meaning in their work that they cannot find now in DHS/ICE. Pathetic, shameful and disgraceful. GovExec.com reader Posted February 4, 2006 6:37 PM