Bad Policy Easily Fixed

Here is a bad situation. Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico cross the border and immediately look for Border Patrol Agents to turn themselves into. They are processed and given an order to appear in court at a later date and are then taken to a bus station.

The problem is that U.S. immigration authorities are short on detention space.
They can send Mexicans back across the border within hours. But international
law prohibits them from sending non-Mexicans to Mexico. Instead, they must
arrange travel documents and flights directly to the immigrant's country of
origin. The process, which the U.S. government pays for, takes weeks or even
months.

Guess how many of the immigrants show up for that hearing. Not many (98% missed it in one center). The Border Patrol suspects word is filtering back about the loophole as it is being increasingly employed by illegal immigrants:

Arrests of non-Mexicans along the U.S.-Mexico border totaled 14,935 in 1995,
28,598 in 2000 and 65,814 last year. In the first eight months of this federal
fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, more than 85,000 have been apprehended. Nearly
all are no-shows at their court hearings, but comprehensive federal figures are
not available.

It seems to me that an investment in several more detention centers would be well worth it to keep tens of thousands to illegal immigrants from exploiting loopholes that allow them to stay in the country. This is especially the case when you consider how the increased number of Central Americans exploiting it are draining manpower that could be spent keeping our other illegal immigrants - including possible terrorists.