Despite surveillance fears, ICE’s electronic supervision for immigrants works | Opinion

With the country preparing for more migrants at the southern border, advocacy groups and certain lawmakers are pressing to dismantle a successful alternative to detention programs, incorrectly claiming that people in the program are subject to regular surveillance and live in constant fear of the people who manage their cases.

As a former case specialist for the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP, I can wholeheartedly dispute these misperceptions and explain why ISAP is important for the lives of the people seeking a permanent, legal home in the U.S.

From 2012-2018, I was a case specialist for the contractor BI, which manages ISAP on behalf the government. My job was to provide case management services to undocumented participants through a network of social service agencies. Having majored in psychology and sociology, this was an ideal job for me — using what I learned about social work to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people.

Stabilizing families

For every participant enrolled, our first priority was to help stabilize them, to be certain their basic needs were being met. That included getting the kids enrolled in school and making sure adults knew when and where to show up for their next court appearance. If they recently changed their address, we told them how to inform the court. We never wanted them to fall through the cracks or create further delays.

Case specialists build real relationships with these participants and their families. We try to understand their circumstances and advocate for them. Remember, these are people who are allowed to live in the community while they await a judge’s ruling; they are not held behind bars. In one case, a mother was worried that her children needed shoes for school but she had no money to buy them. After I called a local agency, they gave the family vouchers so each child could get two new pairs of shoes.

It is important to note that, even though case specialists work closely with these people, we have no say as to how they are monitored or what will happen to them. That’s up to the government and an immigration judge, based on laws set by Congress. My goal was to ensure the participants and their families were stabilized after arriving. If the judge said they had to leave the United States, we would help them get through the departure process.

One reason this program works is that case specialists are always receiving new training. We were trained to be customer service oriented, to treat those we serve with dignity, fairness and respect. We helped families navigate language barriers, learn about food banks and health clinics. But we were also trained to deal with situations involving abusive relationships, which can be very common among families coping with the stress of homelessness, hunger and fear.

How much monitoring?

We followed the rules established by the federal agencies, which included monitoring the participants we worked with. Some were ordered by immigration authorities to wear a GPS monitoring device. The majority were given a mobile device that allowed for check-ins with our office. When they checked in, we could identify where they were at that point. We didn’t track their every movement, but our contract required we knew where they were staying, and if they needed assistance as they went through immigration proceedings.

Some media have reported that program participants were regularly injured from ankle bracelets that were too tight or too hot; in six years, I never saw such injuries. As part of my training, I had to wear a bracelet so I knew how it worked. On occasion, I was asked to adjust a participant’s ankle bracelet if it was ill-fitting. I would remove the device and reconnect it, but I never saw someone burned or injured from a monitoring device.

Some progressive advocates believe ISAP should be ended. Many also believe immigration officials don’t need to monitor people who are waiting to learn if they can stay here legally. Neither idea is helpful to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which carries out the immigration laws passed by our elected officials. We can’t have people skipping out on court hearings necessary to resolve their cases. Watered-down compliance is not the answer to relieve pressure at the borders and at immigration centers.

Programs like ISAP work because they are based on the commonsense approach that clear protocols must be established to provide for people’s basic needs while courts determine who actually gets to live in America — and maybe even become a citizen one day.

Erika Serrano-Cruz is a former employee of BI Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The GEO Group, a publicly traded company that runs evidence-based rehabilitation programs.