The program is designed to help agents keep better track of migrants, the department says.
Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided upwards of 255,000 newly arrived illegal aliens with cell phones. The department claims that the phones will make it easier to track their whereabouts. More than 2.4 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border over the past fiscal year, a new record, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
The latest data, published by DHS, reveals the extent to which the Biden Administration has expanded the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. Migrants are released, and sometimes transported to the interior of the country, and told to show up for a court date. Many illegal aliens never show up for the court date, however, and become difficult for immigration officials to track.
Federal data has long suggested that just a small fraction of border crossers and illegal aliens end up having valid asylum claims. In total, just 1.6% of applicants hold legitimate claims to remain in the U.S.
Asylum seekers are supposed to claim status in the first country they enter. Despite the low number, President Biden opted to lift the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which mandated illegal aliens to quickly return to Mexico while they awaited asylum and immigration processing in the U.S.
The latest ATD figures show that from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, Biden’s DHS gave cellphones to more than 255,000 border crossers and illegal aliens. The phones are meant to be used so the agency can track their locations. The phones cannot be used to search the internet or make calls, Breitbart News reported.
The program costs American taxpayers more than $360,000 per day.
In the previous fiscal year, the Biden Administration provided just 26,000 illegal aliens with cell phones, indicating the massive expansion of the program.
In total, about 2.2 million border crossers and illegal aliens have arrived in the U.S. since Biden took office, including those who successfully crossed the border, undetected by Border Patrol agents.
