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The government spends tens of millions of dollars annually on a legal assistance program for illegal immigrants facing deportation court hearings, even though the government’s studies show it has hardly any effect on their cases.

What’s worse, the Legal Orientation Program costs even more money because the migrants stayed in custody for as much as seven additional weeks, according to a 2021 study. The combined loss totaled nearly $128 million annually.

The Biden administration “hid” that data from Congress and the public even while asking lawmakers to increase the program’s budget, according to a memo from the acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts.

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