Right now, a million illegal immigrants have exhausted all their legal appeals and yet still live in the United States illegally, partially thanks to lackluster deportation efforts by the Obama administration. 
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, joins us to discuss what Immigration and Customs Enforcement can do, and how. Read the interview, posted below, or listen on the podcast:
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And these are deportation orders issued by federal immigration judges. So, these are on aliens who have completely exhausted the legal process. They’ve had a hearing, a judge has heard their claims that they’re entitled to be in the U.S., and after reviewing all of the evidence, immigration judges have said, “No, you’re not eligible to be in the U.S.,” and they’ve issued a final order saying this person can be deported and, basically, immediately removed from the U.S.
Now, if you’re wondering how there could possibly be a million unenforced orders like this, well, they just kind of built up over at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.
Because what happens is, the immigration judges send their order over to [the Department of Homeland Security], and it’s then up to [the Department of Homeland Security] to enforce the order, pick up the illegal alien, put them on a plane or whatever to get them out of the country.
And the Obama administration wasn’t really interested in enforcing our immigration laws, and they didn’t do very much about these deportation orders.
So, if the president wants to do something immediately, like I said, there’s a million illegal aliens with removal orders that can be sent out of the country immediately if [the Department of Homeland Security] can find them, pick them up, and put them on transportation out of the country.