Some things you can't even imagine, much more make up

I have heard of "catch and release" for fishing, but this was new to me - Border Patrol catches, then releases, illegals:

Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Central and South America, are being released into the USA almost immediately after they are picked up by the Border Patrol as part of a policy that U.S. officials acknowledge represents a significant gap in homeland security.

Ya think?

The treatment of illegal immigrants from Mexico has not changed. U.S. Border Patrol agents continue to catch and deport waves of Mexican illegals, who last year accounted for most of the 905,000 people caught sneaking into the USA along the 2,000-mile Southwestern border.

But deporting illegals from countries other than Mexico -- known here as ''OTMs'' -- is far more complicated. Several Central and South American governments have been reluctant to accept groups of people for repatriation. And the Department of Homeland Security, while spending billions of dollars on a range of anti-terrorist programs, has a limited budget for renting detention cells at local jails.

The result: With no place to put thousands of captured illegals from Central and South America, the Border Patrol has begun releasing them after giving them written orders to appear at deportation hearings in nearby U.S. cities.

That sounds really, really effective. But not to worry, that government paperwork can be really tough!

Immigration officials acknowledge the exercise is futile: About 86% of those issued such notices never show up for the court hearings.

In a procedure that has been ridiculed by local law enforcement officials and even some Border Patrol agents, the agents are told to make sure that illegal immigrants provide U.S. addresses and contact telephone numbers before they are released. The information is supposed to be included on copies of the immigration court notices.

But local law enforcement officials who have reviewed dozens of the notices say that many illegals provide false addresses or none at all. That leaves U.S. authorities with few clues about where to look for the illegals if they fail to appear in court.

Well, I'm certainly surprised!

And I also wonder how long it will be before the illegals catch on to this. Oops, it looks like they already have:

The policy has frustrated some border agents, who are encountering waves of illegal immigrants from Central and South America. The illegals have heard that despite the increased security, they are likely to have little trouble getting into the USA even if they are picked up by border patrols.

In recent months, immigration officials have been monitoring a flood of Brazilians into Arizona. Carrying passports and other identification documents, many of the Brazilians have intentionally surrendered to U.S. agents so they could quickly get notices to appear in court -- and then move on to Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and communities in New Jersey.

That's OK though, the Feds are closing the barn door:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement also has formed a special fugitive unit to pursue the more than 400,000 people who have failed to appear for deportation hearings. Venturella says the agency believes it can wipe out the backlog in five years.

Oh please! "Jose Jones, a citizen of Ashcania, entered the USA illegally 5 years ago and says he will be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC. We'll get right on it and pick him up, Chief!"

Of course, some cases are tougher than others:

Jernigan says that when he questioned the man and others, they produced notices ordering them to appear at immigration hearings.

But then Jernigan realized something else: The U.S. agents who had issued the notices did not include dates and times for the hearings. And the spaces where the illegal aliens were supposed to list U.S. addresses and telephone contacts were blank.

Er, what difference does it make? Probably a lot to an immigration lawyer, but I won't go there.

There's more in the article, but the key point is that we can't get rid of these illegals because their homelands are "slow" taking them back. While air dropping the illegals over their capitals sounds cool, how about no foreign aid, no loans, no favorable trade rules, no nothing until the home governments figure it out?

And we better work fast before the Mexican illegals discover that they really are from some place further South too. Kind of like John Kerry with a Latin twist.