Seattle area helps test home detention for foreign detainees

By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The Seattle region is one of three in the country where federal authorities are testing a plan to allow some immigrants facing deportation to wear electronic ankle bracelets at home rather than be locked up.

Another alternative to detention being tested would allow immigrants to check in with authorities at a specific time using voice-recognition technology.

There's a small problem: The equipment doesn't yet recognize accents.

Such alternatives to jail were first launched as a pilot program in South Florida, Detroit and Alaska last summer. Seattle and Portland, along with Alaska in the Northwest region, were added within the past 90 days.

The intent is to free up space at crowded detention centers as the government, post-Sept. 11, has moved to round up more illegal and criminal immigrants. "It seems a less-worse alternative," Cletus M. Weber, a local immigration attorney with Peng & Weber in Seattle, said of the electronic tethers.

"I'd think if people had the option of being in jail or being tracked by Big Brother, most would choose the alternative to jail so they can be with their kids."

Immigrants arrested for being in the country illegally or for criminal offenses can either be detained or released on bond or on their own recognizance pending a hearing. But immigration officials say many of those released never report for the hearing.

While those opposed to expanded federal detention facilities have long pushed for these kinds of alternatives, some still worry about government monitoring and the criminal feel of a bracelet.

"What we need to do is step back and take a look at the whole issue of detention in this country," said Lisa Wilcox, a coordinator with Hate Free Zone Washington, which advocates for immigrants. "All they're doing is rearranging the deck chairs."
 
Criminal suspects will not qualify for the electronic-monitoring program, said Phillip Crawford, field director of the Detention and Removal Operations under the Department of Homeland Security. Crawford's department is a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Those considered for participation will have strong employment and community ties — possibly a U.S. citizen spouse and/or children — and be considered low flight risks, he said.

About eight illegal immigrants in the Northwest now wear the ankle bracelets — a thick black band with a box attached.

Detainees wear the devices at all times — to bed and in the shower. They send a signal to a box elsewhere in the house or apartment.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

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