House Republicans are set to introduce a bill Thursday to ban the Biden administration from giving out cell phones to illegal immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Alternatives to Detention program is intended to allow the federal government to electronically surveil illegal immigrants awaiting deportation proceedings. Most illegal immigrants participating in the program are given an ankle monitor or a cell phone with a GPS tracker.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the program has faced backlash from those on one side arguing that it violates the privacy of illegal immigrants and on the other side arguing that it allows illegal immigrants to escape detention.
The No More Phones Act, led by Rep. Byron Donalds, prohibits the use of “American taxpayer funding to provide cellular devices to individuals who cross the southern border illegally” and would require Secretary of Homeland Security Alejenadro Mayorkas to issue a report detailing the number of phones handed out and whether or not they were returned when illegal immigrants appeared at deportation proceedings.
The bill has eleven co-sponsors.
“Under the guise of President Biden’s so-called ‘leadership,’ this administration has excessively wasted taxpayer funds by routinely providing cell phones to illegal immigrants - which are more than likely to be disposed of at a later date to avoid government detection,” Donalds told the Daily Caller.
“Having been to the border three times, I’ve seen first-hand the distribution of taxpayer-funded cell phones to individuals that purposely sidestep our legal immigration system—that’s why I’ve introduced the No More Phones Act. In defense of law and order, the American taxpayer, and the sanctity of our constitutional republic, I’m grateful to my colleagues for supporting this common-sense legislation that seeks to combat wasteful spending while simultaneously condemning Joe Biden’s open-border catastrophe.”
