Despite easing since January, a surge of migrants released at the border to pursue their immigration cases continues to impact interior enforcement efforts. ICE, which also enforces immigration laws in the U.S. interior, was responsible for 5.3 million cases of families and individuals not in custody at the end of February, up from 3.6 million only 17 months earlier. Staffing hasn't grown appreciably as the workload increased. In 2021, the Border Patrol, also facing extraordinarily high crossings with about the same number of agents, began quickly releasing migrants with instructions to report to an ICE office at their final destination, typically within two months to be processed for court. ICE officials say it takes up to six hours to process a large family, fueling massive delays in an already overloaded system.

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