Of course they didn’t. Who thought they would? This is precisely what amnesty shills have in mind when they demand “due process” for illegals. You’re detained, you’re given a date to meet with immigration agents or appear before an immigration judge to decide whether you’ll be deported, and then you’re sent on your merry way into the United States — never to be seen by the state again. The point of “due process” is to give illegals an easy way to avoid the process. DHS understands this.

So rest easy. Our immigration system is working exactly the way it’s supposed to.

An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that about 70 percent of immigrant families the Obama administration had released into the U.S. never showed up weeks later for follow up appointments. The ICE official made the disclosure in a confidential meeting at its Washington headquarters with immigration advocates participating in a federal working group on detention and enforcement policies. The Associated Press obtained an audio recording of Wednesday’s meeting and separately interviewed participants. On the recording obtained by the AP, the government did not specify the total number of families released into the U.S. since October. Since only a few hundred families have already been returned to their home countries and limited U.S. detention facilities can house only about 1,200 family members, the 70 percent figure suggests the government released roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families who subsequently failed to appear at federal immigration offices.

The same ICE official admitted in the meeting that, of at least 860 people caught entering the U.S. since May and subsequently slapped with an order of final deportation, 14 showed up to be deported. Let me stress, in case the boldface above didn’t catch your attention, you’re not supposed to know any of this. It’s potentially a giant headache for Obama as he tries to muster the courage to issue his executive amnesty later this year, after the voting suckers of America have cast their ballots and can’t punish his party for another two years. That’s why, as the AP notes, officials in the White House and DHS repeatedly dodged questions about the number of immigration scofflaws (at least seven separate times) in June when AP reporters demanded to know if they had any data. Apparently, only pro-illegal friends of the Most Transparent Administration Ever can be trusted with this information. In fact, I assume the reason it was shared with them is because DHS knew how happy it would make them to know that the system’s performing as terribly as they’ve hoped. That’s a nice consolation prize for amnesty shills after O broke their hearts by delaying his order for a few more months.

Give me a reason why the appropriate House committee shouldn’t return to D.C. next month and hold a hearing on why these numbers weren’t publicly released but rather reserved for the White House’s amnesty allies. Don’t tell me “they’re busy campaigning.” That’s stupid three times over: Some things are obviously more important than campaigning; the number of Republicans called back as part of the committee would be small to begin with; and given the fact that amnesty’s become more important to midterm voters as Obama inches closer to an illegal executive order, a hearing on just how broken the process is would be fine politics. Let’s go.