Are GPS-Ankle Monitors The New Jewish Star Armband?

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Written By Barbara Isaacman

QUICK READ:  ICE agents are coming after lawful immigrants living in our communities with GPS-enabled ankle monitors regardless of their compliance with immigration policies. The ultimate goal? Shackle upwards of 7 million immigrants with large, heavy devices with frequent glitches and poor battery life that bruise, marginalize, and “other” human beings. 

   
CONTENTS:

BACKGROUND

ICE’s new round-up aims to shackle law-abiding immigrants with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, formerly devised for cattle, by the millions in order to run surveillance and/or target them for incarceration and deportation. 

As of June 9, the approximate 200,000 adults enrolled in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program who had consented to some form of tracking and check-ins while awaiting immigration case resolution will universally be forced to wear ankle bracelets as quickly as for-profit companies can produce them in adequate numbers. Before then, only 24,000 had consented to this measure.

The cumbersome and heavy bracelets are “prone to glitches, have poor battery life, and sometimes leave bruises and rashes on…people” according to factory producers and ATD participants. 

One immigrant said that wearing a bracelet “makes you feel like you are really a bad person…gets into your psyche and really damages your soul.” This sounds a lot like Nazi Germany’s yellow star all Jews were forced to wear.

This move to cuff en masse participants in full compliance came without explanation, despite the fact that these participants, having lived in the same communities with the same jobs and homes for up to 20 years, are not flight risks. 

ICE’s largest contractor, Geo Group, informed  investors that, over time, they would be able to track millions of immigrants, whose costs those shackled will have to pay.

All this leaves immigrants vulnerable to being rounded up and will likely keep them indebted in perpetuity to private companies, like Geo Group and CoreCivic, who made large contributions to the Trump campaign and will soon be raking in hundreds of millions.

ACTION One: Call the Senate.

Script for Oregon Senators

SEN. MERKLEY: Portland office: 503-326-3386 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753

My name is [--] and I'm a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—-both financiers of the Trump campaign—-who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

SEN. WYDEN:

Portland office: 503-326-7525 | D.C. office: 202-224-5244

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—-both financiers of the Trump campaign—-who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

Script for Republican Senators

D.C switchboard: 202-224-3121

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], [state], [zip code]. I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating bracelets like common criminals or Jews in Nazi Germany. This is amoral and needs to stop. Speak up for immigrants.

ACTION TWO: Call the House.

Script for Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)

Oregon office: 503-469-6010 | DC office: 202-225-0855

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—both financiers of the Trump campaign—who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

Script for Cliff Bentz (OR-02)

Medford office: 541-776-4646 | DC office: 202-225-6730

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating bracelets like common criminals or Jews in Nazi Germany. This is amoral and needs to stop. Speak up for immigrants.

Script for Maxine Dexter (OR-03)

Oregon office: 503-231-2300 | DC office: 202-225-4811

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—both financiers of the Trump campaign—who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

Script for Val Hoyle (OR-04)

Eugene office: 541-465-6732 | DC office: 202-225-6416

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—both financiers of the Trump campaign—who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

Script for Janelle Bynum (OR-05)

DC office: 202-225-5711

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—both financiers of the Trump campaign—who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

Script for Andrea Salinas (OR-06)

Salem office: 503-385-0906 | DC office: 202-225-5643

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code].

I am outraged that the government is forcing law-abiding immigrants to wear cumbersome and humiliating GPS ankle bracelets like common criminals. This is amoral and needs to stop. It feels too much like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were required to don yellow star armbands.

Name the private companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic—both financiers of the Trump campaign—who now stand to make hundreds of millions from the torment of neighbors in our communities. Call out the names of their CEOs and COOs. Speak up for immigrants. This is not my America.

FURTHER READING

Barbara Isaacman
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