March 16, 2009

Alternatives to Detention

Background

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is charged with enforcing the nation’s immigration and customs laws. Among ICE’s responsibilities is the detention and removal of illegal aliens from the United States.

ICE's Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) created the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) Unit in Fiscal Year 2002. The goal of the ATD program is to develop and implement programs to improve aliens’ compliance with conditions of release, including their attendance at immigration hearings and compliance with final court orders. These programs have already shown tremendous promise in improving accountability for aliens in removal proceedings, while helping the agency to use detention space more efficiently.

Alternatives to Detention Programs

The Alternatives to Detention Unit currently manages two contract programs: the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) and the Enhanced Supervision/Reporting (ESR) Program. These ATD programs were not intended to serve as an alternative for those legally required to be detained in DRO custody (e.g., aliens with violent criminal histories or who pose a threat to the community).

Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP)

ISAP case specialists closely supervise participating aliens to ensure successful completion of the program, using a variety of effective strategies such as electronic monitoring via radio frequency (RF) and global position satellite (GPS), unannounced home visits, and telephonic reporting requirements. The program also requires the alien participant to comply with a variety of activities, including local office visits, employment verification, curfews and travel document information collection.

The program initially started with eight "pilot" sites: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Miami; Denver; San Francisco; Portland, Ore.; St. Paul, Minn.; and Kansas City, Mo. Since the initial launch of the eight "pilot" sites, locations have been added in Los Angeles; New York; Orlando, Fla.; and Delray Beach, Fla.

Currently, there is a maximum participant limit of 6,000. Currently, more than 5,700 aliens are actively participating in this program as a condition of release from custody. Since inception, ISAP has served over 12,300 participants. The program currently reports a 99 percent total appearance rate at immigration hearings, a 95 percent appearance rate at final removal hearings and a 91 percent compliance rate with removal orders.

Enhanced Supervision/Reporting (ESR) Program

The Enhanced Supervision/Reporting (ESR) Program is similar to ISAP because supervision specialists closely supervise participants by using electronic monitoring, residence verification, home visits, in-person reporting and travel document information collection.

ESR is distinct from ISAP in that it requires fewer home visits and in-person reporting visits and does not incorporate community referral requirements. The contract also requires the contractor to enroll participants during large-scale ICE operations such as worksite enforcement and large-scale fugitive operations.

ESR provides services within the 24 DRO field offices and three sub-offices (Charlotte, NC; Hartford, Conn.; and Orlando, Fla.). The current maximum participant limit for ESR is 7,000. There are currently more than 6,600 active participants in ESR. The ESR program currently reports a 98 percent total appearance rate at immigration hearings, a 93 percent appearance rate at final removal hearings and a 63 percent compliance rate with removal orders.

The EM component has no participant limit and is available nationwide. There are currently more than 5,100 active participants in EM. The EM component requires DRO officers in the field to enroll the alien participants into the program. Electronic monitoring technologies available for use are telephonic reporting, RF and GPS. EM currently has a 28.9 percent compliance rate with removal orders. Other EM statistics are currently not tracked because the majority of these participants are aliens who cannot be removed in the foreseeable future and were enrolled into EM after completing immigration proceedings.