Yesterday, John looked at the general collapse of Democratic talking points regarding the crisis on the border. We have unfortunately reached the point where too many Democrats in Congress are willing to either ignore or defy the data being provided by CBP and the flood of illegal immigrants that are maxing out our detainment facilities. But what happens when there are no more beds to spare and detention centers are full? The illegal aliens are assigned a court date and set free in the interior of the United States. In case you weren’t sure how often that’s been happening lately, the figure is roughly 100,000 in just the past three months. (Washington Times)

ICE has had to turn loose more than 100,000 illegal immigrant family members over the past three months, a top official said Thursday, setting them free in border communities as the surge of people coming to the U.S. overwhelms the system.

That works out to more than 1,000 family members being cut loose every day, stressing not only Homeland Security but also the charities that are trying to help them, and the local infrastructure — including bus stations — that are trying to help them.

The numbers are so high that deportation officers are being taken from other duties such as scouring prisons and jails for criminal migrants and instead are being sent to the border to grapple with the new arrivals.

Those aren’t politicians generating these numbers. They’re immigration enforcement officers. And if they’re pulling in resources from other states to deal with the situation on the border and still cutting loose up to 1,000 people per day, there’s a serious crisis going on that needs to be addressed.

And yet, we have Democrats and their allies in the press still repeating their talking point about how overall illegal immigration is at “historic lows.” Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times took the unusual approach of saying the illegal crossings had hit the highest rate in a decade, while still calling the numbers historic lows… in the same article.

So what does it mean when that many illegal aliens are released in the country’s interior? I’ve often heard panelists on CNN saying it’s not that much of a concern and quoting a figure of 90% or more of those released showing up for their court dates. But we know where that number comes from. It’s a valid figure, but it only applies to those who are petitioning for asylum. Of course they’re going to be far more likely to show up. They’re already working inside the system and hoping for legal residency status.

But what about those without asylum claims who are facing deportation hearings? A study of data covering the past twenty years shows that 37% of foreign nationals not in detention failed to show up at their hearings and their cases were disposed of in absentia. That’s nearly four in every ten. So if we’ve released roughly 100,000 in just the past few months and those historical averages hold true, you can see what the real issue is here.

We seriously need to take the politics out of this discussion and work on actual solutions. Yes, we still need more qualified judges handling cases in our immigration courts. The average judge currently has a backlog of more than 1,500 cases in progress. And we need to expand and upgrade our detention centers. But more than anything else, we need to stem the tide of incoming illegal aliens to give the entire system some breathing room.

In other words, build the damn wall already.