Using electronic tethers to monitor offenders is an increasingly popular tool in the criminal justice system. For the first time, it’s being used in regards to immigration. Proponents of a pilot project in Detroit and two other cities, see the ankle bracelets as a cost-efficient and humane alternative to detaining illegal immigrants facing deportation. But critics are concerned over how the tethers are being used and who has to wear them. From Detroit, Sally Eisele reports.

SALLY EISELE reporting:

Federal immigration officials say that what the program is really all about is developing a bangles better tracking system for illegal immigrants. Last year, the government ordered roughly 500,000 immigrants deported. But Roy Bailey, Detroit district director of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says most never left the country.

Mr. ROY BAILEY (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement): Only 14 percent of individuals who received final orders in the past even departed the United States. We need to have a better mechanism of keeping track of those individuals who are going through the hearing process. That’s the primary purpose of all of this is to know where people are. And if they’re required to leave the United States to make sure that they leave.

EISELE: Part of the problem, Bailey says, is the detention system itself. At any one time, there are about 20,000 illegal immigrants in detention. Many more are out on bond or released on their own recognizance. In Michigan, with only 300 available beds, Bailey says he’s always searching for more detention space and sees electronic monitoring as a solution.

Mr. BAILEY: If we can use this to have people to still be with their families and have a semi, quote, “normal life” going on as they’re going through the hearing process, then it works for both parties.

EISELE: So far, Bailey says 45 immigrants have been included in the program. One of them is Dearborn resident, Jameel Al-Najar(ph), an young immigrant from Yemen.

Mr. JAMEEL AL-NAJAR (Immigrant): …(Unintelligible).

EISELE: In a small flat in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Al- Najar lives with his wife tiffany and two American-born daughters. On this day, friends and family stop by to visit, watch a little television and have tea. Al-Najar is basically under house arrest, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet that notifies authorities if he leaves the house for any reason except to go to his nearby factory job and he says his life has been anything but normal.

Mr. Al-NAJAR: (Arabic spoken)

EISELE: Speaking in Arabic, Al-Najar says the tether severely alters his daily life.

Mr. Al-NAJAR: (Arabic spoken)

EISELE: His cousin, Ziad Mohammed(ph), goes on to explain.

Mr. ZIAD MOHAMMED (Al-Najar’s Cousin): He feels it affects his pride that he walks around with this thing on his ankle because he feels like he didn’t do anything wrong and he feels like he’s in prison, even though he’s not. There’s no bars on the window or anything, he feels like he’s in prison even while he’s home.

EISELE: Al-Najar, whose wife and children are US citizens, was arrested and detained in July when he went to the immigration offices in Detroit for what he thought would be his final interview for citizenship. Instead, he was detained because of an old misdemeanor drug conviction. Al-Najar’s attorney, Nabi Ayad(ph), applied to have him included in the tether program shortly after it began last summer.

Mr. NABI AYAD (Attorney): We felt anything would be better than a person being in custody. And this is not the best of situation, but it beats definitely being in jail.

EISELE: However, Ayad believes his client, who has a green card would have been a candidate for bond had the tether program not been in effect. Most immigration attorneys initially welcomed the program as a less harsh alternative for their clients. But many now question the way it is being run, including not only immigrants in detention but even asylum candidates. Jeanne Butterfield heads the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She argues that it’s detaining people who should be free.

Ms. JEANNE BUTTERFIELD (American Immigration Lawyers Association): The red flags it raises for me are that detention is being exponentially expanded. These are not criminals. These are people in civil proceedings and I think our detention policies need to reflect that difference.

EISELE: But Immigration and Custom Enforcement official Garrison Courtney argues that the rings program is already a vast improvement over the old system.

Mr. GARRISON COURTNEY (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement): The success rate for us is being able to determine: Is this person coming to court? Is this person, in fact, complying with the law? Did this person stay where they were supposed to stay or did they pack up and disappear into the interior like most of the people that we deal with do?

EISELE: Courtney says the government hasn’t lost track of anyone yet. Of the nearly 200 immigrants wearing tethers nationwide, he says the success rate today is 100 percent.

For NPR News, I’m Sally Eisele in Detroit.