BAD: 13,000 Unaccompanied Minors Fail to Make Court Appearances: GOOD: Illegal Border Crossings Plummet

Bad News: 13,000 Unaccompanied Minors Fail to Make Court AppearancesGood News: Illegal Border Crossings Plummet

  Roughly one-third of the nearly 107,000 Unaccompanied Alien Minors (UAMs) admitted under the Obama Administration failed to show up for their court hearings, according to a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies.  Additionally, only 25 percent of the minors, most of whom were released to their illegal alien family members, later qualified to remain in the U.S.

The high no-show rate provides further evidence that it was the Obama catch-and-release policies and de facto amnesty programs for minors that fueled the surge of UAMs in recent years. Further bolstering that contention is the marked drop-off in illegal border crossings during the first month of the Trump administration. Customs and Border Protection reports a 40 percent reduction in the number of people attempting to enter illegally. Historically, February has been peak season for illegal border crossings.

Merely by sending the signal that illegal border crossers would be detained and meaningful interior enforcement carried out, the Trump administration has seemingly convinced many people not to make the often perilous journey to the United States.

How Much Will Your State’s Sanctuary Policies Cost You? 

Sanctuary cities and jurisdictions across America stand to lose a total of more than $870 million if they decide to embrace their illegal policies in defiance of federal law, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress. The report includes information from the 33 states with counties or cities that refuse to cooperate and share information with federal immigration officials.

Some cities and counties retracted their sanctuary positions soon after the Trump administration announced potential funding cuts, including Miami-Dade County in Florida and Dayton, Ohio.   

Below is a list of what each state is expected to lose if affected jurisdictions don’t overturn their unlawful sanctuary city policies.

  • California: $239 million

  • New York: $191 million

  • Illinois: $91 million

  • Pennsylvania: $65 million

  • Maryland: $35 million

  • Florida: $32 million

  • Massachusetts: 30 million

  • New Jersey: $24 million

  • Connecticut: 23 million

  • Colorado: $17 million

  • Nevada: $16 million

  • Georgia: $16 million

  • Washington: $13 million

  • Louisiana: $13 million

  • Minnesota: $13 million

  • Kentucky: $11 million

  • Oregon: $7 million

  • Arizona: $6 million

  • Texas: $6 million

  • Wisconsin: $5 million

  • Rhode Island: $5 million

  • Ohio: $2 million

  • New Mexico: $2 million

  • Michigan: $2 million

  • Indiana: $2 million

  • Kansas: $2 million

  • Virginia: $1 million

  • Iowa: $482,000

  • Nebraska: $245,000

  • North Dakota: $182,000

  • South Dakota: $88,000

  • Wyoming: $45,000

  • Vermont: $28,000

The programs that would likely be targeted by the federal government include The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG), which funds law enforcement expenses, including court, crime prevention, education programs, drug treatment, and more; the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), which goes toward developing policing strategies, and providing training to community members, local government leaders, and law enforcement; and the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which helps local police departments with incarcerated illegal aliens fund their corrections facilities and the salaries of their officers. 

Notable Quotable:  “Four thousand shootings in Chicago last year, and the mayor announces that his will be a sanctuary city. This is moral esteem over reality; the self-congratulation of idealism. Liberalism is exhausted because it has become a corruption.”  — Shelby Steele, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.    

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