The most vivid depiction of the indignity of electronic ankle shackles circulated online over the summer following the termination of Haitian TPS. In a short video posted to social media, Monsanto Maler could be seen collapsing outside of an ICE field office in Ohio after being fitted with an ankle monitor.
Monsanto Maler is just one person in a much larger expansion of GPS ankle monitor use that now reaches over 50,000—the highest number I’ve observed in years of studying the data on this topic.
At a time when so many people are dying inside ICE detention centres, and the chaos of enforcement is forcing us into a kind of “moral triage,” it is tempting to minimise or dismiss the real-world effects of ICE’s alternatives to detention (ATD) program. If ATD were a true alternative, I might be more conflicted.
But what that video reminded us of was that, despite its name, ATD is not an alternative to mass detention—it is an expansion of the carceral logics that feed into mass detention. Maler wasn’t forced to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of release from detention; he was given an ankle monitor so that he could be more easily detained on ICE’s whims. (As Evan said, this is really an alternative form of detention.)
To better understand how electronic monitoring is functioning right now and to learn about what organisations are doing to fight back, I spoke with three attorneys on the front lines of this work.
Evan Benz is Managing Attorney of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. Evan is part of a team challenging the broader policy of mass ankle shackling uncovered through diligent FOIA requests and litigation.
Anthony Enriquez is Vice President of U.S. Advocacy and Litigation at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center. He is part of a team using habeas corpus litigation to challenge the use of ankle monitoring, particularly when ICE adds GPS shackles as an unlawful condition of release even after a judge has already told the agency to release someone.
Evan and Anthony are counsel in M.O. v. Helland, the class action filed in June against the ICE rule that puts a monitor on nearly everyone released from detention.
Lesley Nash is a Staff Attorney at Just Futures Law, which puts out research on ICE and technology that a lot of us rely on. She joined us to talk about the wider net of surveillance, for-profit contracts, and data sharing that has already undermined the civil rights and liberties of people within and beyond the immigrant community.
The entire conversation is available to watch or listen to above. I’ve included a full list of resources below from our conversation and some of my own additional research and analysis that provides context to what we are seeing now.
My profound thanks to Evan, Anthony, and Lesley for an hour of their expertise, and for the litigation they are bringing on behalf of the people wearing these devices. Thanks also to everyone who joined live and filled the chat with resources, and to everyone reading now.
Five things you can do right now
If you’ve read this far and want to do something, here are a few places to start.
If you know an immigration attorney, send them Amica’s attorney guide to ATD. Kennedy Human Rights is also finishing a practice advisory on the habeas claims Anthony described, and I’ll add it here once it’s out.
If you know someone wearing a monitor, send them Amica’s pro se guide, which explains how to ask ICE to take the monitor off or reduce the conditions. It’s available in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. It is general information rather than legal advice, and anyone who can should talk with an attorney about their own case.
Find out whether your local police work with ICE. Lesley’s first suggestion was to check whether your sheriff’s department, city, or county has a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which you can look up on ICE’s list of participating agencies. If it does, call your local officials and ask them about it.
Support the Haitian community in Springfield. The Haitian Bridge Alliance has worked alongside Kennedy Human Rights for years, and the Ohio Immigrant Alliance’s Unshackle Springfield campaign lists ways local groups can help.
Have one conversation. Anthony closed by asking everyone to talk with one person in their life who doesn’t think any of this affects them. As he put it, “this is a long-term fight that has to be waged person by person, mind by mind, conversation by conversation.” Sending them this post is one way to start.