I picked up the following from the local Houston Chronicle - seems a bit silly to me.

The government pulls people suspected of being here illegally out of airplane lines and then pays to detain, prosecute and deport them to the country they were headed to in the first place.

[…]

“What’s silly about this is that they are on their way home. They have gotten the message that they shouldn’t be here,” said Houston’s Federal Public Defender Marjorie Meyers. “It’s not cost-effective.”

Why not just close the door on them on them when they are gone? Save my tax Money. But the Houston U.S. Attorney Don Gabrielle seems to have another opinion:

Not true, says Houston’s U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle.

The people they are prosecuting are repeat violators of U.S. immigration laws and it’s not only necessary, but also efficient, to stop them and prosecute them, he said.

“We had already expended some time, effort and money before to institute deportation,” DeGabrielle said.

To allow them to come back into the country without proper permission and then just let them leave would minimize what the government is trying to accomplish, he said.

“We feel it’s definitely worth the resources to hold these people accountable,” DeGabrielle said.

I can, to some extent, understand the point of view. Yet I would still prefer to see my tax money spent keeping them out in the first place. The only potentially positive note is that entering illegally is a felony, and will stop them from every getting permission to immigrate here to the US.

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Wizbang