EL PASO, Texas – A new Biden administration policy would require asylum-seeking families to go through home curfews and GPS tracking while officials determine whether to let them stay in the country or deport them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Wednesday.
The program, known as the Family Expedited Removal Management Process, would require some immigrant adults who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with minor children to wear GPS ankle monitors and obey a curfew. The initiative would apply to immigrant families who claim fear of being returned to their country after being placed in a fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal.
Officials said the policy is designed to allow ICE to monitor immigrant families and identify them if asylum officials find they are ineligible for U.S. protection, without placing them in detention centers, a controversial practice the Biden administration has refused to revive.
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If the families fail their interviews with U.S. asylum officers, ICE will deport them within 30 days of their appointment to the expedited removal process, officials said Wednesday. Persons deported under expedited removal are subject to five years of deportation and may face criminal charges if they attempt to re-enter the United States.
“Families should not listen to the lies of traffickers,” Corey Price, ICE’s top official, said in a statement. “Like single adults, noncitizens traveling with their children who do not have a valid basis to stay in the United States will be subject to expedited removal and barred from re-entry for at least five years.”
Initially, the initiative announced Wednesday will apply to immigrant families traveling to areas near Baltimore, Chicago, Newark and Washington, an ICE official told CBS News.
The program is part of a broader Biden administration effort to prevent immigrants from crossing into the U.S. As part of pandemic-era restrictions on immigration, Known as Title 42This week is closed.
While the Biden administration’s strategy to curb illegal crossings includes a significant expansion of the ability of immigrants to enter the country with legal permission, including through a phone appIt is expected to rely heavily on increased deportations and a comprehensive restriction on asylum.
prohibition, Published on Wednesday, would disqualify migrants who entered the country without asylum unless they first sought protection in a third country, such as Mexico, en route to the US southern border. The policy, which is similar to Trump-era rules, is expected to be challenged in court by immigrant advocates.
Immigrants under the regulations face deportation and deportation from the United States under the expedited removal process, unless they pass interviews with U.S. asylum officers, who are instructed to use a higher, more-stringent threshold when reviewing these cases.
Officials plan to hold adult asylum-seekers in Border Patrol facilities while asylum officials effectively determine whether they should be deported under the regulations, or allowed to request asylum before a judge.
But the administration Can’t do the same For families with children due to legal restrictions on detaining minors, Democrats’ widespread rejection of family detention and insufficient bed space at two Texas detention facilities that previously held parents and children in ICE custody.
The curfew and monitoring program announced Wednesday is, in many ways, an attempt to stop immigrant families from illegally crossing the southern border without reimposing family detention, which the Biden administration phased out in 2021.
Administration officials considered the possibility of detaining immigrant families earlier this year, but the proposal was shelved amid fierce opposition from some Biden appointees, Democratic lawmakers and advocates, who cited research showing psychological trauma can affect detained children.
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