“Overall, DHS repatriated 65 percent of aliens encountered in 2014, with the majority (80 percent) of these repatriations occurring as expedited removals or reinstatements of previous removal orders,” according to the DHS report, which tracked the enforcement outcomes over time for people trying to cross the Southwest border legally and illegally in 2014.
But we found no evidence to support Trump’s claim that only 2 percent of those released return for court hearings, and no one from the administration provided us with any evidence, either.
We contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which referred us to the White House. Hogan Gidley, the White House deputy press secretary, promised to respond “in a minute,” but never did.
However, two administration officials testified about the subject before Congress, and both officials put the figure for no-shows at around 50 percent — not 2 percent.
At an Aug. 16, 2018, hearing, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, questioned James McHenry, director of the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, specifically about unaccompanied children who are released and then fail to show up at immigration hearings.
“I’m trying to figure out how many that we actually know are showing up to hearings or are still engaged in the process,” Lankford said. “Do you have a number on that at all?”
“The closest estimate we have is the in absentia rate, the number who receive an order of removal for not showing up at the hearing,” McHenry replied. (In absentia is Latin for “in the absence.”)
McHenry said “a little over 50 percent” of cases involving unaccompanied children crossing the Southwest border are decided in absentia. A chart on the website of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which McHenry heads, shows the in absentia rate in fiscal year 2018 for unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, was 50 percent.
Similarly, Matthew T. Albence, executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told senators at a Sept. 18, 2018, hearing that 53 percent of cases involving “family units encountered at the Southwest border in FY 2014” were decided in absentia.
One immigration expert told us Trump’s 2 percent figure is “highly unlikely.”
