Nearly 600,000 migrants left in ethical limbo after being launched into U.S.

We're back with an update on the situation at the border NBC News has learned that nearly 600 000 migrants have been released into the U.S without getting a notice to appear in court many of the migrants are now left in legal limbo as immigration lawyers scramble to get their clients in court before their Asylum eligibility expires NBC News.

Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley joins us now with more Julia good morning so what happens to these migrants once they are released into the U.S without any notice to appear papers what's behind this and how exactly does it affect their individual cases well this is part of a policy that started under this Administration in.

March of 2021 if you can remember that was the time when there were a lot of unaccompanied children spending way too long in border patrol stations so in an effort to get people out they started releasing people without court dates they had ways of checking in on them some of the more ankle monitors checked in on apps but as we understand it the.

Promise was to later give them court dates but at this point only two hundred thousand out of 800 000 ever got court dates so they're about six hundred thousand people walking around going to immigration lawyers saying look I'm following the rules what do I do next and they're only learning that in a lot of cases it's too late to even apply for.

Asylum so they might not be on the fast track of deportation but they also have no protections to stay here or the ability to work it's really leaving them in this legal limbo and a lot of lawyers say that that's incredibly hard to advise someone once they've already stayed past that one year mark when they're eligible for Asylum more.

Confusion to an already confusing system enjoy I know funding for ice and DHS already limited and the agencies say they've had to make some major Cuts here to those programs which were already underfunded so what does that mean for people who are waiting for those core dates and does that mean migrants are at maybe a greater risk for being deported.

Due to these funding cuts well it's interesting what it actually means is that ice won't be able to track them as easily what it what they've been on is something called an alternative to detention it allows eyes to track a migrant until they would eventually get a court date and appear in court and then actually have a verdict in their.

Immigration case it used to be ankle monitors now they have these apps where you can show your face and track your location on a geolocator but they are even though that costs less than one dollar per day per migrant Congress has only funded them at about half the level they need so they're stop starting to drop people from these programs before.

They even get court dates I've talked to ice officials who say it's really frustrating for them because they really have no way of tracking these people when they're in the country really no matter which way you look at this issue whether you're someone who believes we need less migration and fewer rights for undocumented people who cross the border.

Illegally or whether you're someone who thinks you know what we need to make sure these people have protections either way this system is failing them and Julia we have to talk about what's being done about this how is the Biden Administration addressing the growing complications at the border well they have a number of new policies.

That they're rolling out but most of them are just trying to Target people as they cross supporters we know they're trying to lift title 42 they're making it stricter for Asylum Seekers to cross the border and claim Asylum when they cross they are also trying to open up legal Pathways for people to apply for their home countries but once people.

Cross and they are let in usually under an exception to title 42 which we understand that many have been given that exception they're a lot less Pathways and is a lot less clear to see what they're supposed to do once they're here all right a lot of confusion there Julia Ainsley thanks for helping us break that.

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