By: Real America News Updated 17 Apr 2022, 15: 54 pm EDT
In one year, the government of President Joe Biden has doubled the number of undocumented immigrants whom he places under extreme surveillance, although they are not in prison, but the authorities have been reluctant to report details of the program.
Because of this, a coalition of civil organizations filed a lawsuit against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for details of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) , which allows invasive monitoring of immigrants during 24 hours.
The lawsuit was filed last week before the Northern District Court of California and alleges that the groups Community Justice Exchange, Just Futures Law and Mijente requested last September an application under the Law of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) about the surveillance program, but ICE refused to respond.
This surveillance system is part of the Alternative Detention Program (ATD), which allows the release of undocumented immigrants, but they must carry a shackle with GPS or allow to be monitored through the SmartLINK mobile application .
The lawsuit seeks ICE records related to the use of the SmartLINK app, which is owned by BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of GEO Group, the company that runs immigration prisons.
“This program has only increased the number of immigrants under ICE supervision, subjecting them to invasive surveillance through voice verification monitoring, ankle shackles, and the SmartLINK app,” the lawsuit accuses.
Immigrant advocates affirm that electronic monitoring can cover “a person’s entire life”, knowing all their movements, which can make it difficult to obtain and maintain employment, affect healthy relationships with family and friends, in addition to causing social isolation.
The lawsuit was filed by Catherine Crump, of the Samuelson Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, on behalf of the organizations.
The strategy of extreme surveillance of immigrants has been documented by the Transactional Records Access and Information Center (TRAC) of Syracuse University, New York, which reported that when President Biden took office there were 90,000 immigrants under that program, but now there were almost 200,000, in just one year.
“We are witnessing a profound change in the geographical forms of surveillance and control of migrants”, said the TRAC investigator, Austin Kocher, about the report released last February.