“Stricter ‘house arrest’ program for released migrants draws criticism”

Austin Kocher, research assistant professor in the Newhouse School with the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), was quoted in the Border Report story “Stricter ‘house arrest’ program for released migrants draws criticism.” Kocher, an expert on the US immigration system, explained that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s plan to create overnight house arrests while waiting for court appearances is part of the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, which allows migrants to stay in the US under supervision rather than in incarceration while waiting for their hearings.

This number of migrants held under the ATD program has rapidly expanded under President Biden’s administration. “Biden is just using ATD like crazy to keep detention numbers low, but it also means relying on some new types of possibly intensive monitoring technology that will likely draw some criticism,” Kocher said.