I know people who have been deported. It's quite a simple process. The illegal alien is shipped back to Mexico or Latin American very quickly.
Illegal aliens are not dummy. They know that lying to federal agent is a felony, risking lifetime ban from the US.
Furthermore, if an alien waits for a deportation order from a court, he will lose the right to return to the US for at least 10 years.
Therefore, most illegal aliens sign wavers to accelerate the deportation, and then they are back in less than two weeks, usually working at the same job.
As I say, DHS chief Chertoff has become a parody of himself.
It's not a Red Herring to point out difficulties within the legal system. In this case it may have been a computer lame excuse but as for overcrowding, in the state of Texas it's illegal to have overcrowded jails even for a minute. About 10 years ago the Texas SC literally went cell to cell and pointed out who to release. I don't agree with the way the law is being used in this illegal immigrant issue but I'm not going to support suspending some legal standards because of something I don't like. Congress can make some minor legal changes and we won't have a "catch and release" like failure to provide ID can result in denied bond until such positive ID is made, simple. Another one is if a deportation order is affirmed by a judge then no further entry into the US will be allowed, even for visits. Make a child of two illegal immigrants is born in the US the parents will have to make a choice, take the child with them back to where ever or put up for adoption at a state agency.