Effectiveness of immigrant ankle monitors questioned
EL PASO, TEXAS — Federal authorities’ shift away from separating immigrant families caught in the U.S. illegally now means that many parents and children are released and fitted with electronic monitoring devices — which both the government and advocacy groups oppose for different reasons.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is issuing thousands of 5.5-ounce ankle monitors that immigrants call grilletes, or electronic shackles. The government says they get people to show up to immigration court, but that they stop working once deportation proceedings begin.
Attorneys and peo p le who wore the devices or helped monitor those wearing them say that’s because some immigrants simply ditch them and disappear.
Immigrant advocates and legal experts argue, meanwhile, that the devices — which are commonly used for court proceedings. criminal parolees — are inapSandra, who asked that her propriate and inhumane for full name not be published, people seeking U.S. asylum. so as not to jeopardize her
Congress first established case, said she left northern the program in 2002, though Guatemala in May with her GPS monitors’ use increased 12-year-old son, Juan Car- even more after 2014, when los. She said she had faced thousands of unaccompanied discrimination because of minors and families began her dark skin, and also was traveling to the U.S.-Mexico attacked sexually by a man border and asking for asy- who threatened to kill her if lum, fleeing gang and drug she went to the police. smugglers or domestic vioThey were held in differ- lence in Central America. ent Texas detention centers
Earlier this year, immifor nearly two months, then grant families were separeunited and released — but rated as part of a “zero tolshe got an ankle monitor. erance” program. But after a “I feel tortured,” said Sandra presidential executive order who said she fled Guatemala. reversed that, families are “I’m not in one of those deten- often detained, then issued tion centers, thank God, but I ankle monitors and released still feel like I’m a prisoner.” as they progress through As of early July, there often lengthy immigration were nearly 84,500 active If an ankle monitor’s rechargeable battery dies, or its wearer ventures out of his or her assigned area, alarms are triggered and orders are barked in Spanish. Immigrants issued ankle monitors also usually check in personally with case workers. participants in ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or alternatives to detention — more than triple the number in November 2014. Around 45 percent of those were issued GPS monitors.
ICE spokesman Matthew Bourke said immigration court attendance is strong for immigrants in intensive supervision, but that ankle monitors and other measures are “not an effective tool” after deportation orders are issued. There isn’t reliable information on the number of ankle monitor recipients who remove them and flee, but many say it’s high.
“People can just cut those things off if they want to,” said Sara Ramey, a San Antonio immigration attorney whose asylum-seeking clients are routinely assigned ankle monitors.
The most recent available data was in 2012, when a contractor’s annual report showed that 17,524 people, or around 65 percent of nearly 40,500 total participants, left the intensive supervision program that year. Of those, around a fifth were deported or granted asylum, while about 5 percent “absconded.” The rest were arrested, violated other program rules or were no longer required to participate for unspecified reasons.