News from TRAC

Nearly 500,000 Immigrants Go Through ICE's Alternatives to Detention System in Two Years

(20 Oct 2022) According to new data obtained by TRAC through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, 480,301 people have been enrolled in ICE's electronic monitoring program known as Alternatives to Detention (ATD) between August 2020 and June 2022. Many of these individuals, about 196,000, were previously active in ATD but have since ceased to be monitored under ATD, while 284,000 immigrants were still in ATD as of the end of June.

During the final months of the Trump administration, the number of people leaving ATD was larger than the number entering ATD, leading to a slight overall decline in the fall of 2020. Starting in February 2021, however, the number of people entering and leaving the program began to grow considerably. By the end of July 2021, the total ATD population reached 113,000, up nearly 7,000 from the end of June 2021. But this net increase of 6,718 is actually a result of ICE terminating 6,000 people from the program and enrolling 12,718 new people. The volume of turnover continued to increase in 2022. In May 2022, the largest number of new people—54,203 in a single month—were added to ATD even as 23,877 people were removed from monitoring under the program.

Immigrants have spent shorter and shorter time on ATD—about 200 days on average in 2022 down from 700 days on average at the start of the Biden administration. The rapid growth of ATD would likely have been even greater had ICE not also removed so many people from ATD monitoring. There are many reasons why people may be removed or terminated from ATD, including if they obtain temporary or permanent legal status, if they leave the country or are deported, if they are detained, or if ICE decides that ATD is no longer appropriate for the individual or family.

Between December 2021 and June 2022, the total ATD population nearly doubled from 158,000 to 284,000. The number of Guatemalans, Mexicans, and Hondurans—which made up a very large proportion of ICE's ATD population at the start of the Biden administration, declined in relative and absolute numbers. In contrast, the number of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Colombians, and Peruvians grew dramatically. People from Cuban in June 2022 made up 22 percent of ICE's total ATD numbers, Nicaraguans made up 16 percent, Venezuelans made up another 10 percent.

To read the entire report and see more detail about the inflow and outflow of immigrants on ATD, as well as updated data on nationality, visit:

https://trac.syr.edu/reports/701

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