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.


Figure 1. Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention Program, September 2020 to February 2022
(Click for larger image)

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.


Figure 2-1: Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Program
Using GPS Monitors
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Figure 2-2: Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Program
Using Telephonic Reporting
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Figure 2-3: Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Program
Using SmartLINK
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Table 1. Growth in Noncitizens Monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alternatives to Detention Programs by Technology Type
Date Number Monitored Percent Monitored
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.

Footnotes

[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.

TRAC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management, both at Syracuse University. For more information, to subscribe, or to donate, contact trac@syr.edu or call 315-443-3563.