ICE launches Operation Horizon to locate 80,000 immigrants who were allowed to enter without initiating asylum procedures

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) began this Monday the so-called Operation Horizon to send judicial subpoenas to 78,000 migrants, mostly families, who were admitted into the country at the border without properly processing your asylum application procedures.

Faced with an onslaught of immigrants in recent months, immigration authorities allowed tens of thousands of asylum seekers to pass through and released them in the United States without an appointment to appear in immigration court.

ICE will send them "appearance notices" starting this week, according to sources cited by CBS News, so that the courts can decide whether to accept or reject their asylum applications once they are properly processed.

A protester calls for an end to migrant deportations during a protest in Los Angeles, March 6, 2021.Damian Dovarganes / AP

"ICE is mailing documents to place

non-citizens

who have been paroled or released at the discretion of the prosecutor by Customs and Border Protection (CBP)," explained sources from the federal agency to CBC News.

"Non-citizens are being directed to their nearest ICE field office and will be processed using information collected by CBP as evidence of citizenship and deportation," they added.

[A judge prohibits turning away families with children at the border without allowing them to apply for asylum under Title 42]

Border authorities stopped issuing appearance notices to thousands of migrants who were released after entering the United States without permission,

.

Instead, they were instructed to report to the ICE office closest to their destination

to proceed with the asylum application procedures.

They remember the 557 migrants who died at the border this year

Nov. 6, 202100: 52

According to an internal government document, issuing a notification of complaint takes about 10 minutes, while a notification of appearance takes between 60 and 90 minutes.

The main difference between the two subpoenas is that the complaint does not put the migrants in deportation proceedings within the immigration judicial system, while the appearance does.

Immigration agents intercepted

during fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, a record number since records exist.

[The Biden government will create an intelligence group to monitor migrant groups heading north]

61% were immediately expelled to Mexico or their country of origin under the so-called Title 42, a public health order implemented by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 to deny the right of asylum to the majority of migrants due to the risk of transmission. of the coronavirus pandemic.

ICE will take photos, collect fingerprints, review case files and determine whether the migrants will be fitted with anklets or enrolled in other programs designed to ensure their compliance with reporting requirements, the agency said.

"Measures will be taken against those who do not appear to be in accordance with the law and the Department's priorities," the agency stressed.