ICE's Supervisory Paralegal Specialist Brian Hearn made the admission as a response to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which requested data on those in ATD custody from the start of the fiscal year 2019 to August 2022.
"ICE's response that they could no longer find records of immigrants in ATD that they had previously released came as a shock, particularly after they informed us recently that they had been misleading the public for several months by releasing extremely inaccurate ATD data. The agency really needs to come clean. The American public deserves to have accurate data about the ATD program," TRAC's Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).
ATDs are defined as "any legislation, policy or practice, formal or informal, that ensures people are not detained for reasons relating to their migration status."
ICE started the said program in 2004 to monitor illegal migrants released into the country using ankle monitors, GPS tracking and cell phones. With limited detention space, ICE relies on the program to hold those awaiting the years-long backlogs in immigration courts.
DCNF previously reported that ICE had privately disclosed wrong data showing over 18,000 percent discrepancy in public data on those not tracked with any technology and another 600 percent difference in publicly disclosed GPS tracking data. The agency later apologized for providing wrong information and proceeded to update the data.
"When Congress ordered ICE to publish data on immigrant detention, perhaps it should have been clearer that it expected ICE to produce accurate data – not inconsistent, error-ridden, and misleading data that the agency currently provides to the public on a regular basis. These sloppy, uncorrected errors – more of the norm rather than the exception – demand immediate attention from both the public and from Congress," TRAC stated.
These things happen when the country's chief executive has a loose policy on illegal immigration.
In a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform released on August 16, close to five million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. borders in the 18 months since President Joe Biden was installed in office. (Related: 4.9 Million illegal aliens blew past the US border in the 18 months since Biden was installed in office.)
Biden even approved an application by Washington state to expand health insurance access for all residents regardless of immigration status by allowing it to forgo requirements set by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of the Treasury later approved the state's application for a State Innovation Waiver, issued under Section 1332 of the ACA. The waiver application was submitted in May.
"The waiver will help Washington work towards its goals of improving health equity and reducing racial disparities by expanding access to coverage for the uninsured population through the state Exchange, while not increasing costs for those currently enrolled," the departments said in a statement.
About $50 million was allocated for the program in 2023. An additional $5 million will become available for the program following the waiver's approval.
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Watch Fox's Tucker Carlson press Texas Governor Greg Abbott to secure the border as Biden failed to do so.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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