US: Joe Biden's new programme aims to put migrants under house arrest instead of detention

In order to tackle the southern border migrant crisis, the Joe Biden administration is slated to introduce a plan that would place the migrants on the US-Mexico border under "house arrest,” an official from the Department of Homeland and Security (DHS) and a notice, separately from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed on Tuesday. House arrest would be an alternative to detention as the migrants wait for their court hearings. The Biden administration is introducing a new plan to curb the for-profit detention spaces, US ICE said in a statement on February 8. US President Joe Biden’s $142-a-day worth “Home Curfew” pilot program will be introduced in Baltimore and Houston, and will include approximately 100-200 detainees as per an Axios report. 

US' 1,80,000 undocumented immigrants, court backlogs

In the US, an estimated 1,80,000 undocumented immigrants are already under surveillance and have ankle bracelets and other traceable devices on their bodies for the US authorities to be able to trace them. The new home confinement and curfew pilot program will ensure that the migrants aren’t held in the detention centres during the court hearing backlogs, and would also curb illegal immigration into the United States. 

Thousands of immigration cases are being dealt with by the United States as people infiltrate the southern border from Haiti, Venezuela, and in some cases as far as India — to reach Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, according to Axios. They are monitored with trackable devices, including cellphones, bracelets, and smartwatches. As the progressives in the United States denounced the brutal immigration policies that required the authorities to hold the immigrants in the detention centres, the Biden administration has come up with another method that some officials label as a more authoritarian option. 

"Alternatives-to-detention [programs] are an effective method of tracking non-citizens released from CBP custody who are awaiting their immigration proceedings," a DHS spokesperson told Axios. "Those who do not report are subject to arrest and potential removal by ICE.”

Joe Biden’s new plan, however, was also widely criticised as too absurd and strict. “How it started: Pres. Biden’s executive actions were a green light for illegal immigrants to enter the country,” Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, wrote on Twitter. “How it’s going: Record border crossings, overflowing detention centers and the release of single adult migrants into the US The #BidenBorderCrisis rages on,” the Sen. added. The group Detention Watch lambasted Biden for introducing “more restrictive surveillance” methods and being unable to control the border migrant crisis. According to the data released by US Customs and Border Protection, as many as 1.9 million arrests were made along the southern border last year, a record high since Biden took office. 

Image: AP