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BY MICHAEL LETTS
There’s no question right now that our borders are becoming overwhelmed. It’s getting to the point where thousands of migrants are trying to enter the country, and border agents are doing everything they can with the limited resources available. That said, ICE’s plan to utilize certain border-crossers with smartphones isn’t quite working as well as planned.
A report from The Epoch Times revealed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement team, with full support from U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies, developed a plan to equip illegal aliens with smartphones as a way to keep track of them. According to the official website, over 255,000 of these devices were issued, giving migrants the chance to send geo-tagged photos of themselves to help the home office keep track.
It sounded like a great plan to some, and a way to keep people out of trouble. But then comes the harsh reality of it — wondering who foots the bill.
According to the report, the phones ended up costing around $245,377 a day. Add that up to about a year’s worth, and you have $89.5 million. That’s right, nearly $90 million.
What’s more, ICE is being conveniently quiet about the whole thing. Not only has the group failed to reveal who’s paying for the program, but has also been mum on its effectiveness. We have no idea on how compliance is holding up, or who’s still using the program.
Originally, it sounded as if the program, under the official name “Parole+ATD (Alternative To Detention)” had good intentions. ICE put it together to decide on a “case-by-case basis” which illegal aliens would benefit from it, after processing through a quick background check. But without any official results to show for it, or any word on who ends up paying for it, it really makes me question just how effective it is.
Part of that concern comes from a statement by U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who noted earlier this year that the program seems to come without punishment for violators.
“In my experience, we have seen increases when there are no consequences,” he explained during a late July deposition in a lawsuit against the federal government, which had been launched at the time by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.
Ortiz also pointed a finger at President Joe Biden, noting that his inability to detail migrants would create a huge program, even with the “Parole+ATD” program. “There is an assumption if migrant populations are told that there’s a potential that they may be released, then yes, you can see increases,” he said.
So instead of solving the problem, ICE has potentially made it much bigger. Border agents may have slightly less work as a result (though they’re still incredibly busy with the thousands still coming to their borders), but as a result, we now have a cost that could affect taxpayers or people like you or me. And, for that matter, with ICE failing to disclose just what came of the program, we have absolutely no idea what came from it. Or, for that matter, if it’s still going.
This just makes what’s happening at our borders all the more frustrating. Biden and his administration continue to point their fingers at border agents who are simply trying to do their jobs, all while their own groups put together programs that they automatically champion without seeing the results. That just makes the fight even tougher, especially as more illegal aliens slip through the cracks and find their way into our country.
With that, I suggest to Biden and his team that they buckle down and give the border agents the support they need. A supplementary program just isn’t enough to get the job done. However, hiring more agents, streamlining a process where migrants can be detained and properly reviewed, and simply doing away with excuses would do a world of good.
Besides, there’s only so much that a cell phone can do these days, especially with more and more people being able to “hack” them and provide information that is completely falsified.
Forget the high-tech, high-cost solutions — the best way to solve this problem is with the hard work and dedication of border agents. That’s how it worked in the past, and that’s how it’ll work now.
(Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has over 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt.)