Media Contact
Erin Barnaby
media@caircoalition.org
Washington DC – On July 12, 2024, legal service organizations nationwide submitted a petition for rulemaking to immigration agencies calling for increased immigration judge oversight over harmful surveillance of noncitizens under Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “Alternative to Detention” programs.
Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition), and 28 other immigrants’ rights organizations submitted a Petition for Rulemaking to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. The petition requested that the Departments amend regulations allowing immigration judges (IJs) to review the harmful surveillance conditions that ICE places on noncitizens as part of its “Alternative to Detention” (ATD) programs, including ankle monitors and other GPS monitoring devices.
While they are labeled as “alternatives,” ICE’s ATD programs often involve severely restricting a person’s body and movements. They allow ICE to surveil non-detained noncitizens as they move through their removal proceedings via a variety of “conditions of supervision” that include GPS location monitoring devices (such as ankle monitors and SmartLink phone app), geographic restrictions on movement, curfews, and in-person and telephonic check-ins.
As currently implemented, these programs are not true alternatives to detention because they are alternative forms of ICE’s custody over noncitizens. As of June 2024, 179,761 noncitizens were enrolled in ICE’s ATD programs, nearly five times more people than were held in ICE detention.
ICE claims that it regularly reviews ATD enrollees’ cases for compliance and may escalate or de-escalate a noncitizen’s surveillance level accordingly or upon request by a noncitizen. However, in reality, ICE frequently neglects to de-escalate ATD conditions after months of demonstrated compliance or does not respond to the requests for de-escalation.
“IJ review is desperately needed to provide ATD enrollees with basic due process protections, said Evan Benz, Senior Attorney at Amica Center. “These protections are not just a formality but a necessity to prevent the potential harms that their ATD conditions are causing, including physical, emotional, and financial injuries.”
Media Contact: Erin Barnaby at media@amicacenter.org