Catch and release (U.S. immigration policy)

Catch and release is the unofficial name for a protocol historically followed by immigration enforcement agencies in the United States (specifically, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection) where people caught for being in unlawful immigration status are released while they wait for a hearing with an immigration judge. The policy officially ended in 2006 under President George W. Bush and United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, where it was replaced by a catch and return or catch and detain policy. However, some critics of immigration enforcement in subsequent years, particularly under the presidency of Barack Obama, have dubbed various policies and practices under the administration as catch-and-release policies.

Historically, due to the lack of resources available to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain people, as well as the lengthy time period between apprehension and being ordered deported, catch-and-release was the de facto policy followed by ICE: those believed to be in violation of immigration status were released and given a date when they were to appear before an immigration judge for their deportation hearing. Knowing that coming to a hearing could lead to them being deported, many of these people simply failed to turn up to their hearings. In July 2005, the National Center for Policy Analysis reported that at some federal immigration courts, 98% of the defendants failed to show up.

In October 2005, Michael Chertoff, then Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security, told a hearing of the United States Senate that he intended to end the catch-and-release policy soon, so as to reduce illegal immigration to the United States and the security threat posed by it.

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