In this monologue, the speaker (Dennis Prager) alleges that the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) deliberately concealed the inefficacy of its Legal Orientation Program (LOP) while seeking additional funding. Citing a former EOIR official, Searcy Owen, the speaker claims the program’s $28 million annual budget was misrepresented as $128 million, and that NGOs were paid to educate undocumented immigrants about their rights—rights the speaker questions. He presents data from 2018 and 2021 studies showing that LOP participants were deported at nearly the same rate as non‑participants (76% vs 78%) and had only marginally higher case‑win rates (10% vs 9%). A 2021 study adds that participants were detained longer (155 days vs 104 days in 2017). The speaker concludes that the additional spending does not improve outcomes, merely prolongs detention and inflates costs, and insinuates that the Biden DOJ under Merrick Garland may have been aware of the program’s shortcomings.
Chapters
Here's a quote from the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. And no, I never heard of it either. So the EOIR continued to seek additional funding for legal orientation programs and repeatedly failed to disclose to the Department of Justice or to Congress that it knew that the general LOP was not an effective or economical program. All right, uh, this according to a person by the name of Searcy Owen, who took over at the Immigration Review Office when Trump took office. All right, she said hiding the study was, quote, inappropriate and significantly undermined the Executive Office for Immigration Review's credibility and integrity. So the legal orientation program's annual budget, again, $28 million, not $128 million, but that's what they took, and then they asked for more money. NGOs were getting paid by this organization. I'm sure you guessed that. The legal orientation program is one of several assistance programs the government funds for illegal aliens that are facing deportation. Oh my God, it pays NGOs to provide refreshers on their rights. Now, I don't know how the hell illegal aliens have rights inside of the United States of America. But the good news is you're paying for them to find out, such as avenues of defense or how to request release from ICE detention, uh, that help, uh, but the help didn't affect the outcomes of the cases. So even though we spent $128 million on, uh, defending illegal aliens to try to help them stay in the country, it didn't matter. None of the stats changed. Let me give you some stats. A 2018 study found that 76% of the, uh, uh, of those in the Legal Orientation Program, LOP, I'll call it from now on, all right, were, uh, were ordered to be deported nearly the same rate as the 78% of removal orders for those who weren't in the program. Roughly 10% of those in the legal orientation program won their cases or had them closed without a deportation order, similarly, uh, to the 9% rate for those not participating. Ms. Owens said the 2021 study reaffirmed the 2018 report's data and added to it. It concluded that, quote, those who were part of the legal orientation program were detained at a higher rate and stayed in custody far longer than those who did not. Here's another stat. In 2017, the average legal, the LOP migrant, uh, or illegal who was detained stayed in custody for 155 days compared to 104 days, uh, for the illegal not in the program. So, so the bottom line is we spend more money to defend illegals that want to stay in the country and we get the same result of the illegals that are going about it their own way and trying to stay in the country. But we spend more because we keep them housed longer and we pay for their funding. We pay for their legal fees. It doesn't change the stats whatsoever. But this is some of the money that we're spending. This is some of the stuff that we're discovering. This is stuff that the Congress never allocated the funds for. The DOJ didn't know about it. Wink, wink. I have a sneaky suspicion that Biden's DOJ under Merrick Garland knew about it. That's, you know, that's just me. What's happening here? What's happening here?
