Homeland security options: jail or wear tracking device
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” invites Lady Liberty, the colossus of freedom, from her island in New York Harbor. However, the new colossus of the Department of Homeland Security goes ahead with an experimental program. Those seeking asylum in the United States will have to choose between ‘breathing free’ while huddled in prison or wearing a tracking device while the government decides whether to let them stay. Already, 1,700 aliens are participating in a pilot study that requires them to wear an ankle bracelet with a tracking device so that the government can keep track of them. Homeland Security has the authority to imprison immigrants while a judge decides if they get to stay in the United States. It is testing the tracking devices as a cheaper alternative to imprisonment.
National Public Radio reports that this program is being tested as a way of fighting a frightening statistic: a Justice Department report found that 85 percent of those ordered deported are not. Homeland Security contends that the reason for this is that the aliens go into hiding, preventing their deportation. The agency, therefore, hopes to reduce this percentage by using the tracking devices to force legal aliens to comply with immigration rules without having to imprison them. However, the Justice Department report offers another explanation for this surprising statistic. The report faults the INS itself for loosing track of the aliens. When legal aliens move to a new address and send notification to Homeland Security and the INS, the agency is unable to record the change. The result is that the INS cannot contact aliens they want to deport because they cannot find the correct address. There is no information on how many aliens actually run away and how many are victims of government mismanagement. This story and the Justice Department report can be found at www.npr.org.
When this pilot program ends in six months, Homeland Security will decide if all would-be immigrants should be given the option of wearing the tracking device or going to jail while their case is being decided. NPR’s Web site reports that even now, legal aliens given the option of wearing the device or going to jail are likely to choose the tracking device. Clearly it’s much better than spending an unknown amount of time in jail. But why would we even make them choose in the first place? Why is it that the nation that guarantees “liberty and justice for all” denies it to those who need it the most-those seeking asylum from threats in their home country?
A beacon of hope and opportunity, the United States offers asylum to those who fear for their lives if they return to their home country. Can you imagine a scarier situation than not being able to return to your home country? Like Tom Hanks in Terminal, thousands come to the United States each year unable to return to their home country. Political violence. Ethnic cleansing. Torture. Gang rape. Abuse. Many people face these threats from their own governments. And how does the United States respond? With a terrible choice: breathe free while shackled in jail or roam free with a tracking device, an electronic ball and chain, strapped to your leg. Somehow, Lady Liberty’s lamp just doesn’t seem to shine as brightly.
Brandon Holcomb
Graduate Assistant
The Colonnade
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Mar 4 2005. Filed under Opinion.
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