The Department of Homeland Security has begun shackling Haitian immigrants in Ohio with ankle monitors.
The move comes as roughly 350,000 Haitian immigrants find themselves at risk of detention and deportation in the wake of a slate of federal judicial rulings allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status to Haitians. A similar ruling is expected in New York which would impact 6,000 Syrian immigrants.
Significance. Haitian immigrants were shackled with ankle monitors during immigration check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The agency is requiring those immigrants to stay within a 75 mile radius of their homes, reported The Washington Post.
Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said about 50 Haitians with temporary protected status in Springfield, Ohio, were arrested during their check-in appointments, then conditionally released with electronic monitoring devices, according to The Washington Post.
The use of ankle monitor surveillance is not a new strategy by DHS and ICE.
In 2004, under President George W. Bush, ICE launched an “Alternatives to Detention” initiative which used ankle monitors and other technology to surveil immigrants without proper legal documentation.
The Emancipator reached out to the DHS to ask if they are surveilling immigrants of other ethnicities with ankle monitors. The agency responded by saying, “DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations.”
Overlooked Angle. The ankle monitor racking devices on Black immigrants is reminiscent of methods used during slavery to ensure the enslaved remained under the purview of their enslavers. Experts say a number of modern policing tactics originate in the “patrols” of White men who routinely hunted enslaved “fugitives” who ran away from slavery camps, or plantations, “illegally.”
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