Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Now Monitors About 118,000 Immigrants Through Its Alternatives to Detention Program

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is monitoring record numbers of immigrants through its “Alternatives to Detention” programs that rely on GPS monitors, smartphone technology, and telephonic reporting to monitor immigrants awaiting the outcome of their deportation cases. According to data updated today by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse in its ‘Quick Facts’ tools, a total of 117,682 people are currently enrolled in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention program, up from about 87,000 a year ago at the end of August 2020.

For context, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention program allows the agency to monitor immigrants facing deportation using various technologies without needing to hold them inside of a detention center. The growth in the number of immigrants enrolled in Alternatives to Detention appears to reflect a larger push by the Biden administration to reduce the government’s reliance on detention, but it still only represents a fraction of the 1.4 million case backlog in the immigration courts.

Highlights from data updated today on the immigration detention system provided by show that:

• Immigration and…