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EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ended two programs that provide social services to illegal immigrants who are released into the U.S. interior, telling lawmakers that one brings “immense cost with little improvement” and that another is out of line with ICE’s mission.
The agency responded to Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and 15 members of Congress who wrote to ICE in May asking for more information about the “Alternatives to Detention” program, which monitors illegal immigrants not in ICE detention. The agency defended the program and said it was “an efficient and effective” program for monitoring a segment of illegal immigrants on ICE’s non-detained docket.
ICE only has around 40,000 beds available at one time while it has a non-detained docket of nearly 7.7 million people, a number that has soared during the Biden administration. Of those, just over 181,000 are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention monitoring program, where migrants are monitored either by an app check-in or a GPS monitor.
ICE DEPORTATIONS CATCH UP TO TRUMP-ERA NUMBERS IN FY 2024 AS BIDEN ADMIN COMES TO A CLOSE
This photo shows migrants at the southern border encountered in Arizona. (U.S. Border Patrol)
But in recent years, the agency has also created separate programs to offer various services and assistance to those not in detention. In the letter, the agency says some of those programs are ending. One is the Wraparound Stabilization Service (WSS), which ICE says began in February 2020 and involves working with NGOs to offer “services that provide psychosocial and behavioral health support…
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