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ImmigrationProf Blog
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Deportation agents use smartphone app to monitor immigrants

By immigrationprof

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U.S. immigration authorities long have used ankle monitors as an alternative to the detention of a noncitizen.  Use of monitors, as blogged about yesterday, is not problem free.

Amy Taxin and Amancai Biraben for the Associated Press report on another alternative to detention.  During the pandemic, the U.S. government has expanded the use of a smartphone app to ensure the appearance of immigrants released from detention at their immigration hearings.  Immigrant advocates claim that use of the app violates the privacy of immigrants.

“More than 125,000 people — many of them stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border — are now compelled to install the app known as SmartLink on their phones, up from around 5,000 less than three years ago. It allows officials to easily check on them by requiring the immigrants to send a selfie or make or receive a phone call when asked.” A selfie?  

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Bill Nye takes a selfie with President Barack Obama and Neil deGrasse Tyson  Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Advocates express concern about how the U.S. government might use data culled from the app, including contacts who could be subject to arrest for immigration matters.
 
According to the report, “[t]he use of the app by Immigration and Customs Enforcement soared during the pandemic, when many government services went online. It continued to grow [under] President Joe Biden . . . . His administration has also voiced support for so-called alternatives to detention to ensure immigrants attend . . . immigration court hearings.”
 
KJ

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