The US Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has stopped collecting data on the performance of the program that sees undocumented immigrants released from detention with electronic monitors despite reporting a high level of compliance between 2011 and 2013, according to the Tuesday report from the General Accountability Office (GAO).
The Alternatives to Detention Program allowed the release of undocumented immigrants whose cases were pending, possibly with electronic monitoring, the report summary in a new press release revealed. The release stated that, although high levels of compliance were reported between 2011 and 2013, data were not collected on the entire program and the GAO has recommended improvement to the program performance measures. But, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said that making undocumented immigrants wear the ankle monitors is a more expensive, less effective way to keep track of them until possible deportation than keeping them in detention.
The GAO says that the EOIR should also begin to reassess the effectiveness of releasing undocumented immigrants from detention and faulted them for failing to address the enormous backlog of immigration cases in the US, which doubled between 2006 to 2015 despite a fall in the number of new cases.
The report says that the main reason for the size of the backlog has been the difficulties recruiting new immigration judges. It recommended that the agency should make significant improvements to its hiring process to reduce this.