Growing immigration surveillance business

Danny, his wife and daughter, all asylum seekers from Honduras, have been under surveillance by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's expanding electronic surveillance program for five years.

Danny called his time under surveillance “stressful” and “stressful,” as he was refused work because of his ankle monitor, panicked over technical glitches, and responded to frequent ICE check-ins. “Mentally, it was the worst,” he said. He has been asked to only give his name for fear of reprisal.

He and his wife are being tracked through the ICE electronic surveillance program, which has more than doubled in size under the Biden administration, according to Syracuse University TRAC data.

Big-ticket contracts to run surveillance programs like those with ICE have become a lucrative source of business for private prison companies, an industry that would otherwise be in decline.

For Geo Group, which runs the ICE program, the electronic surveillance products division jumped from 12% to more than 20% of companywide revenue last year, said IBISWorld analyst Alex Petridis.

“It's clear there is demand for this product, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a similar surge in the next few years,” Petridis said, adding, “It's a new technology being used, so legislators have not yet regulated it. No,” he said.

Electronic monitoring has contributed to high case compliance rates for immigrants awaiting immigration hearings, including many immigrants who ultimately face deportation, but it also helps immigrants comply with ICE check-ins, submit documents, and submit documents. Supporters argue there are less intrusive ways to better encourage submissions. Attend the hearing.

In Danny's case, during the five years he was under electronic surveillance by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he became increasingly irritable and paranoid.

In Honduras, he fled with his wife and eldest daughter out of fear of being killed by gangs. They had refused to pay the gang the hundreds of dollars in profits they earned each week from their family's small business. He said he was thankful he wasn't detained for long after crossing the border and wasn't initially concerned about the ankle monitor on his left leg.

Later, the stares from strangers, the fear from co-workers, and the bullying from her daughter's friends whose parents were criminals all came about because of the ankle monitor.

“We didn't come here because we wanted to, we had an obligation to come, and they treated us as if we were here to steal or commit some kind of crime,” he said in Spanish.

As the months went by, his ankle monitor's battery lasted shorter and shorter, and he became increasingly paranoid. He remembers being woken up at 3 a.m. one night by a frantic call from a Geo Group case specialist after his battery died, demanding to know his whereabouts.

These calls are becoming more frequent. So his lawyer helped him get a seemingly less intrusive option: a surveillance smartphone app called BI SmartLINK.

“It’s the same stress, the same headaches, the same suffering because there are so many app glitches,” he said.

He was frustrated that the app kept failing when taking a photo for check-in. And he didn't believe that the apps on his phone weren't spying on him. He even refused to talk about politics or immigration around him. phone.

“ICE extracts vast amounts of personal information about people, from their names, addresses, and Social Security numbers (if they have them) to their locations, friends, family, relationships, car numbers, and whereabouts.” Laura Rivera said. , an attorney with Just Futures Law, said, “We cannot trust the government to handle this amount of sensitive data about immigrants and individuals in the United States.”

She also said the agency lacks a fair and transparent process for determining who participates in electronic monitoring programs. The vast majority of immigrants with pending immigration cases are not monitored.

She also said there needs to be more clarity on how someone transitions from less intense electronic monitoring, especially as the program expands rapidly.

Under the Biden administration, the number of immigrant families and individuals being monitored electronically while their immigration cases move through the courts has increased from about 87,000 to more than 200,000, according to TRAC and TRAC. Most of them are participating in the smartphone app “BI SmartLINK.” ICE data. Approximately 500,000 people were monitored under the government program between August 2020 and June 2022.

This expansion of electronic monitoring was a windfall for Geo Group, the nation's second-largest private prison company. The company has a five-year, $2.2 billion contract with ICE.

Alex Petridis said other companies may also be looking at electronic monitoring services as they move away from contracting out detention space from private companies and because electronic monitoring services are more profitable than running correctional facilities. He said it was highly sexual.

“It's clear that initial costs and maintenance costs will be significantly lower,” he said, but that profitability could decline as chip supply chain issues continue and the technology ages. Stated.

Edward Cunney, a Houston ICE officer, said electronic monitoring is “all about mitigating flight risk” for people with open cases and has been “positive” in terms of improving overall case compliance. ” he said.

On his computer screen, he displayed one person's movements over a 24-hour period using the BI SmartLink app. He said ICE collects data only to make sure people are staying where they're supposed to be.

The BI SmartLink app not only monitors movement, but also notifies people about important events such as court dates.

Doris Meissner, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute and former INS director, said, “Immigrants need to be informed about a process that can be very confusing and that can change as court dates change.'' We will provide relevant information.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows people under electronic monitoring have a 95% attendance rate at final court hearings and a nearly 100% compliance rate at other hearings. This compares to an overall immigration hearing compliance rate of 83%, according to the American Immigration Council's review of his 11 years of case data.

But some advocates aren't convinced. The same study showed that just hiring a lawyer resulted in a compliance rate of about 96% and no deportation authorities were involved.

“What they[government officials]are trying to do is set up a system that could be further weaponized by future anti-immigrant regimes,” said Noreen Shah, an attorney with the ACLU, which supports community-based case management. I haven't thought about it,'' he said.

Danny is still waiting for his asylum case to be heard in immigration court, but he regrets the toll the process has taken on his family.

“The stress level in my house was always high,” he said. “My eldest daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy a year and a half ago due to stress.”

He said things have improved since electronic surveillance ended, but life is still far from the “American Dream.”