SPECIAL REPORT: Local ICE Director says agency is at breaking point

The record number of asylum seekers making their way to the Borderland has the local ICE Field Office Director concerned.

“To say that ‘when are we going to be overwhelmed?’ I think we’re already there,” Corey Price said. “A lot of people say it’s going to break. I think we’re broken.”

Price said many of his officers have been moved from their regular duties to help process migrants. He said ICE’s enforcement capabilities have no teeth because of that.

“It’s extremely difficult. We do not have the resources right now to handle the flow that’s coming in. We have nowhere near the resource to handle the population that we already have of illegal immigrants, that have been ordered removed from the country — let alone all the new ones that we’re adding daily because of the flow,” Price said.

Price said because there’s very little enforcement happening, migrants can get away with not showing up to their immigration hearings.

Adolfo, a Guatemalan asylum seeker who asked that his full name not be used, was released by ICE last week in El Paso. He and his 13-year-old son surrendered to Border Patrol agents after crossing into El Paso. He said he looks forward to his hearing with an immigration judge, and wants to do things the right way.

“I want to obey and respect the laws in the United States,” Adolfo said in Spanish. “I want to be a good example for my son, and show him to do things the right way.”

Adolfo said he worked on a farm in Guatemala, but in recent months he was not able to find work. He said sold everything he had to make the trip to the United States. His next stop is Hagerstown, Maryland where he will be staying with a friend.

“I’ll be working in construction,” Adolfo said.

He assures me he will show up to his immigration court hearing on June 6 in Baltimore.

When ABC-7 asked Price how many migrants actually show up to their immigration hearings he said “very, very few.”

Department of Justice statistics paint a different story:

In absentia deportation orders, which are issued by judges when the applicant failed to show up in court, have fluctuated over the past few years. Thirty-four percent of migrants did not show up in 2014. In 2018 that number was 39 percent.

As for how asylum seekers are actually processed here’s typically what happens according to Price:

Migrants surrender to Border Patrol agents They are transferred to a holding facility ICE and Border Patrol take down a migrant’s biographical information Migrants are asked if they fear returning to their home country, if they say yes, they are considered asylum seekers Photos and fingerprints are taken A migrant’s criminal background is checked ICE asks migrants where they will be staying and who will be their sponsor Migrants are given an immigration court date, and told to check in with the ICE Field Office that is closest to where they will be staying ICE then transports migrants to shelters and non-governmental organizations that help house them

Price estimates close to 99 percent of aslyum seekers are released on their own recognizance.

They are given this form: