Catch and release

In United States immigration enforcement, "catch and release" refers to a practice of releasing a migrant to the community while he or she awaits hearings in immigration court, as an alternative to holding them in immigration detention. The migrants whom U.S. immigration enforcement agencies have allowed to remain in the community pending immigrant hearings have been those deemed low risk, such as children, families, and those seeking asylum. There is no "hard-and-fast definition" of the phrase, which is pejorative. Rather, the phrase refers to a "collection of policies, court precedents, executive actions and federal statutes spanning more than 20 years, cobbled together throughout Democratic and Republican administrations." The Trump administration has used the phrase as a catch-all term for laws or policies preventing the holding of apprehended migrants in immigration detention. Etymology and criticism The phrase catch and release originated in recreational fishing over a century ago. It originally referred to releasing fish after capture. The phrase "entered the political lexicon during the George W. Bush administration." A number of scholars and writers, such as geographer Reece Jones, media studies scholar Hector Amaya, and commentator Michelle Goldberg, regard the phrase as dehumanizing because it likens human beings to fish.