Over 180,000 Immigrants Now Monitored by ICE's Alternatives to Detention Program

The number of migrants monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention program has more than doubled since the start of the Biden administration, from around 87,000 people in January 2021 to nearly 183,000 in February 2022. ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program—“ATD” for short—relies on a variety of technologies to monitor noncitizens who are awaiting their immigration court hearing, already have a deportation order, or whom the agency otherwise decides warrants monitoring.

Figure 1 shows the growth of people monitored by ATD between August 2020 and February 2022. Note that the data is not released at consistent intervals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so the time between each data point varies. Table 1 below provides a complete overview of ATD totals and ATD enrollment by type, and includes the first date of TRAC’s data, August 2019, which is not included in the graphs. TRAC’s data on ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program is available in TRAC’s detention Quick Facts tool available online at https://trac.syr.edu/quickfacts.

Despite the name Alternatives to Detention, ICE describes ATD not as a substitute for detention, but as a program that “allows ICE to exercise increased supervision over a portion of those who are not detained.” According to data in TRAC’s Detention Quick Facts tool, even though detention numbers have declined somewhat in 2022, the growth in ATD has not resulted in the agency ending its use of civil detention centers. However, detention numbers remain far lower, at just under 20,000 in February 2022, than during the Trump administration when TRAC found that detention numbers reached 55,654 in July 2019.

SmartLINK Technology Is Responsible for All ATD Growth

ICE’s ATD program is operated by a private contractor, BI, Inc., a subsidiary of GEO Group, a private company which also contracts with ICE to build and operate immigrant detention facilities[1]. The ATD program relies on three technologies: GPS ankle monitors, TR (telephonic reporting), and SmartLINK[2]. GPS ankle monitors are devices worn by noncitizens that rely on global position systems (GPS) to track location. Telephonic reporting requires immigrants to check-in at specific intervals over the phone using voice matching technology to confirm identity. SmartLINK, the newest of the three, is a smartphone application that relies on facial recognition and other technologies to confirm the identity and location of people enrolled in ATD.

Notably, all of the growth in ATD enrollments has taken place through SmartLINK technology, while the number of people enrolled in ATD through GPS monitors and telephonic reporting has remained constant. The first month for which TRAC has data, September 2019 (see Table 1), shows that SmartLINK was used in less than 6,000 cases, while GPS (55,918) predominates and telephonic reporting (21,562) also makes up a significant fraction of cases.

By the start of the Biden administration in January 2021, ICE had increased its use of SmartLINK so that each technology constituted roughly one third of the total number of cases. However, between January 2021 and February 2022, GPS and telephonic reporting remained largely stagnant, while SmartLINK technology more than quadrupled from about 27,000 to more than 118,000.

Figures 2-1 to 2-3 show the number of people monitored by each of the three types of ATD technology over time. The scale for each graph is identical to show relative size.

Table 1. Growth in Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Programs by Technology Type

Date	Number Monitored				Percent Monitored
Date	Total	GPS	SmartLINK	TR/VoiceID	Total	GPS	SmartLINK	TR/VoiceID
9/30/2019	83,186	55,918	5,706	21,562	100%	67%	7%	26%
8/21/2020	86,501	30,847	22,519	33,135	100%	36%	26%	38%
9/4/2020	86,053	30,055	22,827	33,171	100%	35%	27%	39%
9/18/2020	85,857	29,498	23,245	33,114	100%	34%	27%	39%
11/14/2020	85,413	27,877	24,768	32,768	100%	33%	29%	38%
11/26/2020	85,628	27,729	25,360	32,539	100%	32%	30%	38%
12/10/2020	85,882	27,742	25,723	32,417	100%	32%	30%	38%
12/30/2020	86,369	29,144	26,113	31,112	100%	34%	30%	36%
1/7/2021	86,565	29,301	26,262	31,002	100%	34%	30%	36%
1/22/2021	86,860	29,459	26,597	30,804	100%	34%	31%	35%
2/11/2021	87,439	29,929	26,905	30,605	100%	34%	31%	35%
2/25/2021	88,308	30,509	27,248	30,551	100%	35%	31%	35%
3/17/2021	90,630	32,039	28,372	30,219	100%	35%	31%	33%
3/31/2021	92,166	32,568	29,662	29,936	100%	35%	32%	32%
4/14/2021	93,733	33,014	30,994	29,725	100%	35%	33%	32%
5/3/2021	95,160	32,838	32,794	29,528	100%	35%	34%	31%
5/13/2021	96,574	32,728	34,445	29,401	100%	34%	36%	30%
6/11/2021	100,363	33,404	37,871	29,088	100%	33%	38%	29%
6/24/2021	103,933	34,474	40,524	28,935	100%	33%	39%	28%
7/8/2021	106,080	34,904	42,365	28,811	100%	33%	40%	27%
7/22/2021	107,795	31,181	47,811	28,803	100%	29%	44%	27%
8/6/2021	112,256	32,126	51,495	28,635	100%	29%	46%	26%
8/24/2021	117,682	34,748	54,525	28,409	100%	30%	46%	24%
9/16/2021	124,999	30,826	66,012	28,161	100%	25%	53%	23%
10/28/2021	136,026	29,557	79,480	26,989	100%	22%	58%	20%
11/20/2021	140,254	27,317	86,462	26,475	100%	19%	62%	19%
12/4/2021	145,463	28,053	91,025	26,385	100%	19%	63%	18%
12/18/2021	150,755	28,665	95,782	26,308	100%	19%	64%	17%
1/1/2022	157,761	30,705	98,502	28,554	100%	19%	62%	18%
1/15/2022	164,391	30,681	101,804	31,906	100%	19%	62%	19%
2/12/2022	182,607	28,793	118,448	35,366	100%	16%	65%	19%

ATD Growth Uneven Across ICE Regions

Although the total ATD enrollment has more than doubled during the Biden administration, some of ICE’s Areas of Responsibility or AORs (i.e. enforcement regions) have experienced higher growth than others. San Diego, New York, and Denver, for instance, have seen growth that is consistent with the national trend; each of those AORs have more than doubled their ATD enrollment between the start of the Biden administration and today. Boston and San Antonio have seen much higher than average growth. Boston’s ATD enrollment grew nearly five fold in the past 13 months, from 1,503 in January 2021 to 7,118 in February 2022. El Paso saw an even larger growth; the ATD population in ICE’s El Paso region grew eight fold. And Phoenix saw by far the most growth, with ATD numbers increasing from just 1,101 in January 2021 to 14,306 today.

The increase in ATD’s enrollment in the San Antonio AOR would have been the highest in the country but its Area of Responsibility which covered both Central and South Texas at the start of the Biden administration was split into two in FY 2022. ATD cases that were in South Texas which were formerly attributed to San Antonio were then tabulated under the new Harlingen AOR starting in FY 2022[3]. This left San Antonio covering just Central Texas. The Harlingen AOR first appeared in ICE’s ATD reporting in November 2021 and today stands at 16,070—the largest number of people on ATD for any AOR in the country.

Table 2 below show the number of noncitizens monitored by ATD at the start of the Biden administration and now by ICE’s Area of Responsibility.

Table 2. Growth in Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Programs During Biden Administration

Area of Responsibility	January 22, 2021	February 12, 2022	Growth Ratio	Percent Change
Total Monitored by ICE ATD	86,860	182,607	2.1	110%
Phoenix	1,101	14,306	13.0	1199%
El Paso	1,082	8,730	8.1	707%
San Antonio*	1,638	11,022	6.7	573%
Boston	1,503	7,118	4.7	374%
Dallas	986	2,745	2.8	178%
Miami	5,613	13,044	2.3	132%
Denver	1,422	3,080	2.2	117%
San Diego	2,668	5,573	2.1	109%
New York	3,636	7,455	2.1	105%
Philadelphia	2,059	4,043	2.0	96%
Newark	6,967	13,153	1.9	89%
Washington DC	2,786	4,968	1.8	78%
Atlanta	2,776	4,623	1.7	67%
Chicago	6,533	9,666	1.5	48%
Salt Lake City	3,007	4,304	1.4	43%
Seattle	3,839	5,386	1.4	40%
Buffalo	433	601	1.4	39%
St Paul	2,221	2,842	1.3	28%
Los Angeles	10,281	13,059	1.3	27%
San Francisco	10,571	13,379	1.3	27%
Houston	2,637	3,330	1.3	26%
New Orleans	2,813	3,276	1.2	16%
Detroit	7,750	8,462	1.1	9%
Baltimore	2,538	2,372	0.9	-7%
Harlingen*	NA	16,070	-	-

* Growth for San Antonio would have been 16.5 times or the highest in the country had its area of responsibility covering Cental and South Texas not been reduced in size when Harlingen was elevated to a separate AOR covering South Texas. That is ATD monitoring in Cental and South Texas grew from 1,638 on 1/22/2021 to 11,022+16,070=27,092 on 2/12/2022, or a growth ratio of 16.5 times.

^[1] For more information about BI, Inc., GEO Group, and ICE’s ATD program, the Congressional Research Service published an explanation and review of ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program in 2019 titled “Immigration: Alternatives to Detention.” Recent reporting here also verifies ICE’s current contract with GEO Group and BI to operate the agency’s ATD program.

^[2] Note that telephonic reporting or TR was initially recorded as VoiceID. This designation changed in ICE’s data release on November 14, 2020. TRAC uses ICE’s current term telephonic reporting throughout the report to include both types and uses the designation TR/VoiceID in the tables for the same purpose.

^[3] The same month that ICE began reporting data on Harlingen (6,143 on November 20, 2021), San Antonio saw a corresponding decrease of 5,981 people on ATD, reflecting this reduction in its area of responsibility to just Central Texas.