by Jason Hopkins
A group of House Republicans is seeking federal answers about a program designed to monitor undocumented immigrants across the United States, arguing that it does not properly monitor people who enroll in the program and has essentially become a “social services program.”
Florida Republican Byron Donalds joined 15 other House Republicans in a letter Friday to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Executive Director Daniel Bible with a list of questions about how the agency is administering the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program ). Among other things, lawmakers asked for detailed information on the number of beds available in ICE detention facilities, the number of people presenting for removal proceedings and information on how those people are supervised.
“We are writing today to express our concerns regarding the implementation of the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. “As you know, the ATD program was established in 2004 to monitor aliens on the Non-Detained Persons Register (NDD) while awaiting the results of ongoing immigration proceedings,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, today’s version of the ATD program expanded to include a social services program, failed to adequately monitor people enrolled in ATD, and ultimately proved to be an ineffective way of dealing with the unprecedented numbers of people on [non-detained docket]”
The ATD program allows asylum seekers to move freely around the country instead of being physically detained while awaiting an immigration hearing, using GPS monitoring, phone apps or other forms of tracking services to always know their whereabouts.
Republicans were particularly outraged over ICE’s management of the Intensive Surveillance Program (ISAP), ATD’s largest program affecting registered immigrants and its budget.
“For example, we question whether it is appropriate to allow foreign nationals to traverse the United States of America without continuous monitoring of such individuals’ specific movements,” the letter reads. “We are also concerned about the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) and the Young Adult Case Management Program (YACMP) – particularly how these methods encourage flight, undermine alien accountability, and transform the ATD program into a welfare system.”
Republicans argued that U.S. tax dollars should not be used for social services for foreigners but should instead be used to complete the border wall, maximize the apply of detention facilities and support federal immigration authorities, according to the letter.
“GPS monitoring significantly increases the likelihood that illegal aliens will comply with immigration proceedings,” RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Enforcement Center, told DCNF. “Individuals enrolled under ISAP – the proper form of ATD – have a 98.6% compliance rate for attending immigration hearings and are more easily located if they are absconding.”
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration has failed to use the program effectively and correctly, instead acting on the wishes of ‘Abolish ICE’ groups that not only oppose incarceration but call any monitoring of undocumented immigrants a ‘digital prison,’” Hauman continued. “This explains why ISAP use has declined significantly even as the number of undetained people approaches 7 million.”
Donalds also introduced the “Reshaping Alternatives to Detention Act” on Thursday, which calls on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to apply all detention space available to migrants arriving from the southern border and to maintain GPS monitoring of those migrants who are not physically detained.
Mohammad Kharwin, an Afghan citizen who entered the country illegally, was almost immediately removed from the ISAP program and allowed to move freely in the U.S. for almost a year before he was detained. It also found that the ATD program was more likely to apply methods that were less effective in tracking enrollees.
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Jason Hopkins is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Border crossing” by Visual information distribution service for defense.
