It turns out that for decades immigration officials have been practicing funny math in an effort to mislead Congress on the percentage of migrants who fail to make their mandated court appearances regarding their immigration status. As The Daily Signal’s Mark Metcalf explains, “From 1996 through 2016, just under half of all aliens who were set free pending a trial date — 1.25 million in total — were ordered removed, i.e. deported. Of that number, 952,291 were removed for evading court. Less than a quarter of this same group actually appeared in court. Over the span of more than two decades of court business, nearly two-fifths (37 percent) of those who were let free before their trial ended up fleeing court.”

But the rigging of failure-to-appear rates wasn’t the only game being played by officials. The percentage of actual deportations was also being consistently misreported in order to make the numbers look better. Metcalf reports, “Of the 1,254,152 aliens who were ordered deported from 1996 through 2016, 76 percent of them — 953,506 to be exact — remained in the U.S. They not only remained, but grew.” He added, “A 2006 Justice Department inspector general’s report agreed, stating the ‘program for deporting illegal aliens had been largely ineffective’ and that ‘89 percent of nondetained aliens released into the U.S. who were subsequently issued final orders of removal were not removed.’”

Both of these failures demonstrate just how bad the illegal immigration problem has become and how for decades government officials essentially looked the other way. The one bright spot is that now under President Donald Trump, these corrupt practices are being exposed. The next step and arguably the hard one will be coming up with a solution to rectify them.