Amnesty advocates are complaining about the use of GPS ankle monitors on illegal aliens detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the border.
Sister Norma Pimentel, who runs Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley near the Texas-Mexico border, protested on behalf of the illegal immigrants, telling the Los Angeles Times, “They feel like a criminal. They say, ‘How will I be able to work with that?’ They pray they don’t get it.”
Last week, the CARA Pro Bono Legal Project in Dilley, Texas, joined immigrant lawyers’ groups to demand ICE Director Sarah Saldaña terminate the use of the ankle monitors. The Times adds that Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said in June that immigrants who could prove they faced persecution in their native countries could be released on reasonable bonds and with ankle monitors. He added that ICE would double the number of ankle monitors monitored from 23,000 in 2014 to 53,000 in 2016.
Children under the age of 18, pregnant mothers, and illegal immigrants with “significant medical issues” cannot be issued ankle monitors.
Last year, Amber Cargile of ICE told Phoenix-area NBS News affiliate KPHO that the ankle monitors had a high success rate getting immigrants to appear in court, saying, “The compliance rate with those who are being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets can be as high as 90 percent.”
Last December, the AP reported audio of a meeting between immigration activists and a DHS official in which the DHS official admitted around 70 percent of illegal immigrants who are released because of a paucity of space in jails do not report back to immigration officials.
Photo: file
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