Axios is reporting the Biden administration has stopped holding undocumented families in detention centers, relying instead on electronic ankle bracelets and other tracking methods. The administration has not announced an official policy ending the harmful practice, and facilities are still holding adults in often inhumane conditions. Immigrant rights advocates have also condemned the intense surveillance of migrants and likened monitoring devices to “shackles.”
In related news, the Justice Department has pulled out of talks to compensate migrant families who were separated at the border under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Over 5,000 children, including babies, were ripped from their families, which Biden has called a “moral and national shame.” But last month Biden rejected reports his administration could offer up to $450,000 per family, saying, “That’s not going to happen.”