Posted on 10/01/2003 4:15:53 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Illegal aliens awaiting deportation hearings may no longer have to wait it out in custody under a new program being tested in three U.S. cities.
The program, begun in August by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allows select non-violent aliens back into the community wearing electronic monitoring devices to ensure their return for court appearances as required by law.
It is also intended to prevent illegal aliens awaiting hearings from absconding, as hundreds of thousands have done over the years, according to ICE.
ICE spokesperson Garrison Courtney told CNSNews.com that personnel assigned to detention and removal operations conduct the program out of the Department of Homeland Security.
"What we're trying to do is address some of the problems we had when we were the Immigration and Naturalization Service," Courtney said.
With a typical inflow of 19,000 to 20,000 detainees daily, one of those problems was space management, Courtney explained.
"We only have so much bed space, and what we've seen over the course of the last four years is that only 14 percent of the people that are ordered by an immigration judge to be deported and are released on bond show up," Courtney said. "You take that into account, and now, we have this backlog of 400,000 absconders, and those are people who have been ordered deported but have failed to show up for the deportation out there, and we have to go out looking for them."
The program is part of an initiative to ensure compliance with deportation. Courtney likened the program involving electronic monitoring devices with being under house arrest in the federal probation system. The devices themselves resemble small plastic ankle bracelets outfitted with a black box that sends signals revealing the wearer's location at all times. Immigrants may not remove the devices for any reason while under the program.
Approximately 200 individuals are currently in the program, 100 of whom are in Miami, with the rest in Anchorage, Alaska, and Detroit, Mich. Courtney said the choices represent small (Anchorage), medium (Detroit) and large (Miami) "detention areas." After analyzing the program's success in late 2003, the government might decide to use it nationwide, he said.
According to Courtney, ICE officials went through all of the cases and tried to determine the best candidates for the program. They include individuals who already have family in the United States or whose cases have been tied up in the courts for a long time.
"You have to take all of these things into account. They're on house arrest, essentially. They're able to go out and be with their family and kind of have a semblance of a life while they're awaiting their court hearing, which could literally go on for 10 or 15 years, depending on how many appeals they get," Courtney said.
"When a case like that happens, obviously, you can't detain a person for 15 years, but we want to ensure that we know where they are so we don't lose track of these people and create more of a backlog of absconders," Courtney added.
The illegal aliens are required to check in at regular intervals as determined by their individual case officers, Courtney said. Not all are required to stay at home the entire time. With proper authorization, the people awaiting deportation hearings are allowed to work and return home at a pre-determined time. However, Courtney said the agency scrutinizes employers to ensure no aliens were being illegally employed.
Courtney also emphasized the savings projected under the program.
"Something like $3.80 per day versus $150 per day," Courtney said, comparing the program costs with detention housing, clothing and feeding costs.
The daily monitoring of the devices is contracted out to ADT Security Services, a company already used by other federal agencies for similar activities, Courtney said. ICE will provide agents to oversee the entire process. In the case of Miami, three officers were assigned.
The program garnered some praise from immigration reform advocates.
"The enormity of the problem facing them, with the hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens and alien absconders that need to be dealt with, accompanied by the budgetary constraints currently facing the country...with the right kind of monitoring and follow-up, this could be a very good use of scarce resources," David Ray, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told CNSNews.com.
But Ray warned that illegal aliens allowed into the program should not be given the impression that they could "play Houdini" and disappear "like thousands before" them.
The deportation process needs to be conducted in a faster manner, according to another reform-minded activist, in order to "stop abusing the generosity and compassion of the American people." Craig Nelsen, executive director of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement, added that: "If we really wanted to lessen the burden on the American taxpayer, then we would permanently disbar any immigration lawyer who is found to have issued a fraudulent asylum claim."
Immigration rights activists, however, have their own concerns, namely that the monitoring program might be targeting the wrong individuals.
"The problem that we've had (with the program) is that right now, they're using it with asylum seekers here, people that would already be eligible for parole before this program was implemented," Charu Newhouse Al-Sahli, advocacy coordinator for the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, told CNSNews.com. "For those sorts of people, we don't think that this is the most effective use of this program."
Courtney laid out the Bush administration's bottom-line objective.
"The fact is, they're (illegal aliens) breaking the law every day. I mean, that's the simple, cut-to-the-chase fact of it. They are breaking the law, they're breaking the law every day that they're here illegally," Courtney said. "It's a lot better use of our resources than having to go after a person once they've absconded."
It's important to remember, Courtney concluded, that illegal immigrants are "cutting in line in front of millions of people that immigrate here legally every year."
Listen to audio for this story.
E-mail a news tip to Steve Brown.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Hillary.
OTOH we are a nation, and can and of right should regulate who becomes one of us and who does not. We have little tendency to restrict immigration more than any other nation does; if Mexico adopted our immigration law and practice its character would probably change. There is an argument that we should adopt strictly reciprocal immigration laws--if an American can't go to Mexico, a Mexican can't come here.
What's to stop the illegal aliens from putting their plastic leg devices on their grandmother's leg? This is ridiculous. 15 years, to await a court hearing? My arse.
We need everyone's help TOMORROW!!!
National Call In
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.