Georgia Murder Case Highlights Problems with ‘Alternatives to Detention’
By Jon Feere on March 1, 2024
The latest information on the recent murder of Laken Riley at the University Georgia raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the expensive and controversial Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program.
As described on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website, ATD exists “to ensure compliance with release conditions and provide important case management services for non-detained noncitizens”. Put differently, ATD allows ICE to track the whereabouts of illegal aliens released into the interior of the United States until the alien absconds from the program or ICE decides that monitoring is no longer needed. Since 2004, taxpayers have spent about $1.5 billion on the program and the recent, failed immigration bill would have thrown $1.29 billion more at the program.
As explained in a draft ICE report published by Fox News, thousands of aliens enrolled in ATD abscond from the program every month and the average absconsion rate is 84 percent (the report looked at 47,905 aliens enrolled in ATD for their full immigration lifecycle and found that 40,300 absconded). Those who claim ATD is 90 percent effective are looking only at aliens who have been on the program for a short period of time; ICE generally takes aliens off the program after about 12 months despite immigration cases that might not conclude for years.
Now, a new statement from ICE regarding the Georgia murder case underscores exactly how ineffective the ATD program can be, raising many issues for Congress to look into.
https://cis.org/Feere/Georgia-Murder-Case-Highlights-Problems-Alternatives-Detention
