The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with the Biden administration, suffered an embarrassing mishap after Border Patrol apparently lost track of nearly 50,000 migrants released from custody. Consequently, the federal government has implemented a new program for tracking wayward migrants via electronic monitoring.
As reported in the Washington Examiner, the Biden administration implemented the new electronic monitoring system at some point in the past fall, though the exact date remains elusive. The new electronic monitoring program was introduced in response to the old, which depended upon migrants checking in with the federal government on their own volition, or an effective “honor system.”
As a result of the old policy, DHS released tens of thousands of migrants into the United States with “notices to report” or NTRs, which are documents that instruct migrants to check in with their nearest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after they reach their preferred destination in the nation.
However, out of the 100,000 migrants that were released under this policy, nearly 50 percent, or 47,000, opted against checking in with ICE, which resulted in the DHS losing track of their physical whereabouts.
Moreover, since ICE also lacked any personal information about any of the illegal migrants, DHS was unable to pursue them after they failed to show up as scheduled in their NTR.
Through the new policy, which is known as “parole,” migrants are fitted with ankle monitors, or they are required to install a phone app on their mobile device. If the migrant opts to delete the app, ICE is promptly notified and can allegedly take action.
The Biden administration had generally grown accustomed to the simple, but problematic, approach of issuing NTRs in order to process individuals in custody more efficiently, particularly after illegal migration soared at the U.S.-Mexico border shortly after Biden’s inauguration last year.
The NTR process also saved Border Patrol officers significant time, in that they no longer needed to place every individual in court proceedings, ostensibly to make sure that a given migrant would appear before a judge for crossing the southern border illegally.
The DHS’s new electronic monitoring system has arisen in response to harsh criticisms of the agency, especially since it is apparently unable to locate nearly 50,000 illegal migrants.
