and i think a focus on just the length of time without the reasons for the delay, wouithou looking at the fact that aliens routinely and understandably file for continuances and to impose a six-month rule is really a mistake. with respect to demore i would like to address your honor's concerns. you are right that the statistics we provided to the court were inaccurate and we apologize. >> i'm not blaming you. it's partly what the statistics were provided and what the courts did with them. it doesn't matter who was to blame or not to blame. demore says that the average is five months. it turns out that the average is more like a little bit over a year. >> the reason why i think demore is goods is this reason. i think demore rested on two pillars. first was the judgment that flight risk and ra sid vichl are real problems and ijs are bad at predicting and thereafter congress could make a judgment in this area of immigration law that mandatory detention was appropriate. and second, the purpose of the detention was being served. to effectuate removal and the detention was not going to be p