With less than two months left in office, the Biden administration is taking steps to make it harder for President-elect Donald Trump to crack down on the nation’s illegal immigration crisis.
Beginning in early December, the Biden administration is planning to launch an ICE Portal app that will let illegal immigrants skip in-person check-ins to local ICE offices, the New York Post reports.
Homeland Security sources tell The Post the app will make it easier for migrants to flee authorities in part because the software has proven to be glitchy and unreliable.
Even when it’s working correctly, the new app doesn’t check for past arrests or outstanding warrants — something the current system tied to in-person appointments does, sources said.
Up to 100,000 migrants will be enrolled in the first wave of the program, sources said.
That’s just one of a handful of initiatives being pushed through before inauguration day — including allowing migrants to contest government orders to undergo electronic tracking while they await their immigration appointments.
And experts said rolling back the policies might not be as simple as Trump waving his pen, because changes could be subject to both procedural hurdles and legal challenges. (New York Post)
The app reportedly doesn’t work on Android phones and doesn’t collect GPS location of those using a laptop for check-ins, allowing them to report from anywhere. When used on a phone, the app only gives location information for the individual for seven days.
That contrasts with the current system, where migrants have to provide proof of their current address. The database also constantly searches for arrest records for migrants anywhere in the country — even if they fail to show up for appointments — and will flag ICE officers.
That system allows ICE to be more proactive about migrants who have been arrested, even when they are currently in a sanctuary city like New York.
The app and the current migrant tracking database do not speak to each other, sources said, making it harder for ICE to keep track of migrant criminals.
“We need that information that if these people don’t go to court, they have absconded, they have a final order of removal. We need that data … to go start looking for people,” said a source. (New York Post)
That’s not all, however.
The Biden administration is also trying to sneak through loosened regulations on its electronic monitoring of released migrants, such as its use of ankle bracelets, through ICE’s “Alternatives to Detention” program.
The proposed changes will afford migrants new rights that “allow them to contest monitoring and tracking,” said a source.
If the program is implemented, migrants will be allowed to “request a review at any time” and demand that minoring be either downgraded or terminated entirely, the source added.
“It gives the alien the ability to get off the program entirely,” the source said. (New York Post)
Former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan blasted the administration's effort.
“What they’re trying to do in the last final day, they’re going to try to put up as many roadblocks and obstacles and throw as many grenades as they can on their way out," he told the Post.
“This is an obstructionist transition,” Morgan said.