After a left-wing federal judge in Seattle ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration may not hold illegal aliens and asylum seekers behind bars indefinitely, a left-wing attorney and illegal immigration activist argued on Fox News that the judge had made the right decision.
According to Gunther Sanabria, an attorney who represents illegal aliens and asylum seekers, it was the right decision because his clients should have the opportunity to ask for bond. But according to former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Thomas Homan, that argument is bunk.
Listen to their back-and-forth discussion below, via FNC’S “The Ingraham Angle“:
The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman came two months after the Trump administration reversed a policy that had allowed illegal aliens and asylum seekers to request release on bond. Sanabria falsely argued Tuesday that it was this policy that had created the overcrowded conditions in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s detention facilities.
(If that were true, then why were Obama-era facilities just as crowded?)
“This is a bottleneck caused by Donald Trump,” he said Tuesday night on FNC. “Donald Trump stopped the bond hearings, stopped the power that the judges have to decide a case and this is what is happening. We have overcrowded jails and overcrowded systems. The judge said enough. We can fix this problem. The law allows us to give them a bond hearing, and that is what we’re going to do.”
“There is no reason why we are holding a mother, father and child in a detention center waiting days and sometimes months for a bond hearing. This is our system. Our legal system allows the judges to grant a bond based on certain requirements.”
(There is a reason: Child trafficking.)
Homan strongly disagreed with Sanabria’s assessment. Asked by fill-in host Raymond Arroyo to explain why it’s necessary to hold illegals indefinitely instead of releasing them on bond, the former ICE director explained that it’s because most illegal aliens never show up for their post-bond immigration hearings.
“Because they’re likely to abscond. Look at the data. The data’s clear. 90 percent of [illegals] are in absentia , which means they didn’t go to court. That’s just the facts,” he replied.
Those are indeed the facts. Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan confirmed that 90 percent of asylum seekers never show up for future hearings. They simply disappear into the heartland.
“We see too many cases where people are not showing up. Out of those 7,000 cases, 90 received final orders of removal in absentia, 90 percent,” he said, referring to just the cases from the past few months.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary, Kevin McAleenan, reveals that 90% of asylum seekers do not show up for their scheduled hearing after entering the U.S. | @GillianHTurner pic.twitter.com/BzdmGzdQGq
— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) June 12, 2019
Nevertheless, without citing any evidence, Sanabria disputed these facts.
“Those numbers are not accurate,” he said, thus dismissing the federal government’s own data.
“100 percent of my clients appear in court, sir,” he added.
It’s unclear why he as an allegedly trained and licensed lawyer doesn’t understand that long-term trends and data always trump random anecdotal “evidence.”
“They’re absolutely accurate. If you look at those claiming asylum at the border, almost half of them don’t even file a case in immigration court,” Homan retorted.
But again Sanabria disputed the evidence. Except for this time he doubled down on his claim that the Trump administration’s immigration officials are to blame for everything.
“Immigration [officials] causes a lot of problems because they don’t do their job properly,” he argued. “They are not prepared, they are not trained. I have clients that come a year ago, and immigration is sending them their notice for hearing a year and a half later.”
It’s unclear why he believes his clients are entitled to quick hearings.
Homan then concluded the discussion by making an astute point.
“It’s incredible they can find a way from Central America to the United States, but they can’t find a way to an immigration court in the city they live. But I guarantee they’ll find a way to a welfare office. I guarantee they’ll find a way to [a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office] to get employer documents.”
Tell that to the hundreds of illegals who fill up the welfare office where I live “each and every “ day applying for food stamps, money and medi-cal benefits! How are they not takers? Idiot!
— Rosalie Nospin (@RosalieNospin) June 29, 2019
This claim that illegal aliens and asylum seekers benefit from America’s generous welfare system is also backed by the facts. Over in California, last month Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that expanded the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, to cover low-income illegals between the ages of 19 and 25.
And according to Chris Conover from the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke University, illegals throughout the country cost taxpayers billions a year.
“All told, Americans cross-subsidize health care for unauthorized immigrants to the tune of $18.5 billion a year,” he reported last year, citing his research.
Reports have likewise suggested that the total cost of illegal immigration runs as high as $113 billion a year.
None of this appears to matter to Sanabria. As a lawyer for illegal aliens and asylum seekers, he seems to believe his clients are entitled to whatever they want, all at taxpayer expense.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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