One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Matt Mayer / April 02, 2009

It was bad enough that the federal government utterly failed to enforce our interior enforcement immigration laws during the Clinton years and during the first term of George W. Bush. It was only after Michael Chertoff arrived as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and started taking a tough stance on illegal immigration that Immigration and Customs Enforcement began enforcing the laws on the books. Part of this get-tough approach included ending the self-defeating policy called “catch and release” where illegal immigrants were caught, but then released with a notice telling them to appear at a courthouse at a date months down the road. Not surprisingly, upon being released, they hightailed it to another city or state and never stepped foot near the courthouse. “Catch and release” was a toothless policy that needed to end. (more…)