Reimagining Immigrant Detention: Alternative Policy Tools and Lessons from Abroad

ICE’s current ATD program, Intensive Supervision Appearance Program III (ISAP III) utilizes a combination of face-to-face and telephonic meetings, unannounced home visits, scheduled office visits, and court appearances to maintain surveillance of program participants. Additionally, technology is used for location tracking in the form of telephonic reporting, GPS tracking through ankle monitors, and through a smartphone application known as SmartLINK that allows participants to confirm their identities with facial recognition software. ICE reports high levels of compliance within the ISAP program.

Ankle monitors have gained traction as a popular ATD method for immigration enforcement in the United States and are used extensively in the criminal justice system. Ankle monitors allow migrants to be released from detention while giving ICE constant access to their location. Costing as little as $4.50 per day, they are far less expensive than the $200 to $300 per day for detention. First established as a program in 2002, ankle monitor usage increased after 2014 when significant numbers of families and unaccompanied children arrived at the border seeking asylum. As arrivals began to outpace the capacity of family detention centers, and court cases limited the detention of families and minors, ICE increased ankle monitor usage. By 2018, there were more than 84,000 participants in ISAP and approximately 45% of those were assigned GPS ankle monitors. The bracelets are maintained and monitored by ICE-contracted private companies, although in 2020 one Virginia company settled with state regulators that restricted its ability to operate. ICE has also used data from the ankle tracking devices to initiate worksite raids.

However, immigration advocates have raised concerns that electronic monitoring is inhumane. Questions have arisen about the health impacts of the constant wearing of ankle monitors, as continual wearing has been linked with inflammation, bleeding, and numbness around the foot and leg. Additionally, devices need to be charged numerous times throughout the day while remaining attached to the body, requiring the wearer to remain near electrical outlets. Migrants who wear ankle monitors have reported feelings of social stigma due to the monitors, as they are similar to those placed on pre- and post-trial offenders in the criminal justice system. At the same time, ICE states that they are not effective as an alternative to detention, saying in 2018 that as many as 3 in 10 families cut off their bracelets, particularly if they were ordered deported.

ICE funded a pilot program of community-based alternatives to detention from 2016-2017 known as the Family Case Management Program (FCMP). Originally intended to be a five-year pilot, the program was ended by ICE less than halfway through the intended period. FCMP was created for families with vulnerabilities not compatible with detention: young children, pregnant or nursing women, victims of domestic violence, and individuals with health considerations. The program utilized a comprehensive case management strategy that was supported by community-based organizations and was facilitated by a private contractor. Each family received a case manager who assisted them in accessing resources including legal counsel, English language training, and food and medical assistance, and ensured that they attended all meetings and hearings in their removal cases. Families met regularly with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, and managers updated families on their cases regularly.

Due to its early termination, data on FCMP is incomplete. However, the available data suggests high rates of compliance, with 99% attendance at immigration court proceedings and 99% compliance with ICE monitoring requirements. During the life of the program, only 4% of participants absconded. However, a majority of the participants were still in immigration proceedings when the program was terminated, leaving uncertainty with what would have been the final rates of compliance. When ICE ended the program in June 2017, it stated that rates of compliance for FCMP were consistent with ISAP III but at a much higher cost. In terms of cost, FCMP remained significantly cheaper than detention. In FY2016, FCMP cost $38.47 per family per day, as opposed to the $237.60 per day for family detention. Other forms of ATDs that did not provide the same number of community resources, particularly ISAP III, were reported to cost less than FCMP in 2016. The cost of ISAP III was reported to be $4.40 per person.

The available data suggests that ATDs have high rates of compliance and cost less than detention. However, more data is necessary to analyze the full scope of effectiveness. Pilot programs offer an opportunity to collect data on a smaller scale, but preemptively terminating them leaves us with inconclusive data sets. Importantly, they must be assessed on their potential to scale if they are to meaningfully act as alternatives to physical detention.