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For Li Ann ‘Estrella’ Sánchez, an immigrant from Mexico, being granted asylum in 2018 meant she could legally stay and live in Atlanta. It also meant the irritation on the skin around her ankle could heal.
For a nearly six-year stretch while her case was being heard, Sánchez had to wear an ankle monitor so that immigration authorities could track her whereabouts and ensure she showed up to court dates.
“I felt like I was a prisoner in my own home,” Sánchez said.
It’s a feeling more and more people could become familiar with, as the number of immigrants under electronic surveillance has surged since President Joe Biden took office about 14 months ago, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan research organization at Syracuse University.
As of March 26, there were 4,736 individuals electronically monitored within the Atlanta ICE office’s area of responsibility, which covers Georgia as well as North and South Carolina. On January 22, 2021, shortly after Biden’s inauguration, that figure was 2,776, meaning the program has grown by roughly 70 percent.
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