SPRINGFIELD — A potential change in tactics for immigration enforcement when it comes to Haitians with expired temporary status.
Many were required to go to ICE facilities, where they left with ankle monitors.
There has been a big focus on these monitors after a Haitian student took his own life, and his family said he struggled after ICE put him in one.
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News Center 7’s Xavier Hershovitz learned from Haitian community leaders that they are seeing fewer people with ankle monitors.
The Haitian community in Springfield is very close-knit, and leaders in that community said they are seeing more people leave ICE facilities with an app on their phone instead of those ankle monitors.
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“We are gathered together with grateful hearts,” said Wislande Hensle of the Haitian Community Empowerment Committee.
Leaders of the Haitian community in Springfield are coming together to celebrate the release of a Haitian pastor from ICE custody.
He’s now out on bond as his immigration case makes its way through court.
It comes as these leaders are noticing a new trend with immigration and customs enforcement.
“They don’t really use the ankle monitor for on people anymore,” Obed Benjamin Louis of the Haitian Community Empowerment Committee.
Haitian leaders said ICE is no longer putting those with expired temporary status on an ankle monitor, instead using an app to have them check in daily.
“It’s a big relief for the Haitian community because that thing of ankle monitor is or was very humiliating,” Louis said.
It comes after the death of Pierre Damas Bel.
The Wright State freshman’s family said he was in a dark place after ICE placed him on an ankle monitor.
He took his own life on I-70 just weeks ago.
“We don’t know what is going to happen, but what we’ve seen so far is the relief of the ankle monitors,” said Viles Dorsainvil, Executive Director of the Haitian Support Center. “What we have to do is to continue to raise our concerns.”
News Center 7 got a statement from ICE:
ICE evaluates all individuals on a case-by-case basis to determine what level of electronic monitoring is appropriate, and the decision of what technology is used rests with the ICE ERO office with jurisdiction over that case.
The decision is made by local agents with jurisdiction over the case.
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