ICE doubled its use of ankle monitors for legal immigrants in the past year: ‘A very harmful phenomenon’

Agency uses devices, which are uncomfortable and interfere with employment, to push people to self-deport, advocates say

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For five years, an asylum-seeking woman attended routine check-ins with immigration authorities without issue. At her most recent appointment in October, she was unexpectedly ordered to strap on an ankle monitor, according to her attorney, Deepa Bijpuria.

Bijpuria, a supervising attorney in the immigration unit of Legal Aid DC, described the client as a single mom who fled her home country because of severe domestic violence, escaping while pregnant with her young daughter.