Far-Right Party Tries to Expand Its Appeal in Germany's West
Until recently, Mr. Imamura said, he was not welcome in places like this. That is because he is a leading local figure in the Alternative for Germany, known as the AfD, a far-right party whose national organization was recently declared an extremist group by the country's domestic intelligence service.
Much of the AfD's support comes from the former East Germany. But in recent years, it has developed a beachhead in parts of Western Germany. During February's federal elections, several neighborhoods in Mr. Imamura's district gave the AfD some of its best results in the country, coming close to 40 percent of the vote.
'It's so different,' he said. 'You would not imagine, five years ago — when I put up some posters, people spat on me. And today the people, they say, 'Finally.''
The AfD emerged over a decade ago around skepticism against the euro, but it soon morphed into a party built on the denigration of immigrants and refugees, one of the reasons it was designated as extremist.
A confidential, 1,018-page report by the domestic intelligence service, which was not released but was reviewed by Der Spiegel magazine, documents what it called 'an entrenched xenophobic mind-set' within the 'top leadership structures of the AfD.' For example, Bjorn Höcke, who leads the AfD in the Eastern state of Thuringia, has repeated Nazi-era slogans and called for 'large-scale' deportations with 'well-tempered cruelties.'
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Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jewish Tacoma candidate opposed by PAC backing ‘interests of Jewish community'
With funding coming largely from outside Tacoma, a political action committee that backs candidates who 'support the interests of the Jewish community' is spending thousands of dollars to oppose a candidate in Tacoma's District 5 City Council race. The PAC, called Washingtonians for a Brighter Future, spent $15,000 on mail and postage to send flyers opposing Cook to voters of District 5, and another $1,000 on text messages with the same goal. The group, according to a substack article linked on its website, is endeavoring to 'oppose hate in all forms' by elevating or opposing candidates at the local level who could move up to national positions. It's modeled after a California-based PAC called California Against Hate, which in 2022 worked to oppose a city council candidate in San Diego who was 'anti-Israel,' according to the article. 'Many of the most dangerous people crop up in the small cities,' Jared Sclar, co-founder of the California-based PAC, said of the Washington PAC in the substack article. 'If there is someone problematic, we may not know. We may not know someone is going to sneak by and get on the city council, and then they're the next Ilhan Omar,' Sclar wrote of Omar, a Democratic U.S. representative from Minnesota. Cook said she wasn't surprised to see such opposition to her campaign. 'I think these are the kind of hurdles that are very common when it comes to trying to win people-powered campaigns against corporate interests,' Cook told The News Tribune. The mail campaign came around mid-July, ahead of the Aug. 5 primary election that will whittle the slate of three candidates for the District 5 race down to two. Cook has raised the most money in the race so far at $47,012.98. Incumbent Joe Bushnell raised $35,744.14, and candidate Brandon A. Vollmer raised $851.03. The PAC as of July 24 raised $32,768.09 this year, only $1,000 of which came from a donor with a Tacoma address. The rest came from donors in Washington cities like Mercer Island, Seattle and Medina. At least one contributor listed an address in Naples, Florida. According to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, the PAC spent $18,076.61 by July 24, $16,000 of which paid for the campaign against Cook. The mailers that the PAC distributed depicted her standing in front of a building with broken windows with graffiti that reads 'don't burn' and 'ppl live upstairs' overlaid with text that stated, 'Zev Cook cooking up chaos for Tacoma.' It also implied that Cook supported defunding the police and stated that doing so would result in increased crime, gang violence and home invasions. Cook, a community organizer and activist, has the backing of groups like the Tacoma and Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 3000, and the Washington Education Association's PAC. Incumbent Joe Bushnell, who is running for re-election, has the endorsement of several state representatives, current and former council members, and the Tacoma Police Union, International Union of Police Associations Local 6. Bushnell also has Washingtonians for a Better Future's endorsement. 'Council Member Bushnell is a friend of the Jewish community,' the PAC's website reads. Bushnell said he didn't solicit an endorsement from the PAC but said he wasn't surprised to see the group oppose Cook, given her support from the Democratic Socialists of America. 'The groups that are supporting my opponent have very public rhetoric that rubs a lot of folks the wrong way,' Bushnell told The News Tribune. Cook, who is Jewish, said she feels the group is going after her because of her vocal support of Palestine. 'I'm the only candidate running for city council this year that's made public comments in support of Palestine and against genocide, in alignment with my Jewish values of community repair and justice,' she told The News Tribune. 'I think this is very similar in some ways, but certainly at a smaller scale, to the attack ads that were run against Zohran [Mamdani] for being a pro-Palestine candidate that he is continuing to be,' she said of Mamdani, who recently won the Democratic primary in New York City's mayoral race. 'But like Zohran I'm intending to win by continuing to just focus on how we make life better for working people in our city.' Nevet Basker, the PAC's co-chair, told The News Tribune the group is seeking to combat antisemitism and said it was Cook's 'rhetoric against Zionism' that the PAC opposes. 'We believe that the rhetoric in some of these campaigns, including Zev Cook, creates a permission structure for antisemitism that results in issues in our own communities, in Tacoma, in this case, where the Jewish community feels unwelcome and sometimes unsafe,' Basker told The News Tribune. Basker said the PAC's concerns also go beyond those of the Jewish community, to what she described as Cook's support for abolishing the police and prisons. 'She's also a leader of an organization that advocates for abolishing prisons and all incarceration releasing, even violent criminals, murderers, rapists, back into our communities,' Basker said. 'We believe that that is unsafe for everyone.' Cook, according to her website, has served as an officer for the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America. The group also endorsed her in the District 5 race. The Democratic Socialists of America's political platform calls for the 'abolition of the carceral state.' 'For all of the working class to achieve collective liberation we must constrain, diminish, and abolish the carceral forces of the state — from prisons and police themselves, to their manifestations in all forms throughout society,' the platform reads. Cook told The News Tribune that she doesn't think that defunding the police 'is a very good framework for understanding public policy' and instead supports specific policies like increasing funding for Tacoma's non-police crisis response team. 'Generally, I think that we as a community need to be focused more on not just addressing the symptoms, but addressing root causes when it comes to crime, which is why our platform is so focused on addressing income and housing inequality in our community,' Cook said. She said she wasn't surprised to see the PAC's efforts to oppose her campaign and said the group wouldn't have sent out the mailer if they didn't think Cook had a real shot at winning. Some commenters on Reddit said that the anti-Cook flyer made them want to vote for her even more. 'Getting an attack ad like this just tells me that they've seen how effective our campaign has been at mobilizing the support of working class Tacomans,' she added. 'It tells me that they're scared that we might win this year.' Solve the daily Crossword
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
NYC is in Trump's immigration enforcement sights
Presented by Resorts World New York City With help from Amira McKee Mayor Eric Adams has been setting himself apart from other 'sanctuary' city leaders with a more diplomatic approach to President Donald Trump's deportation agenda. 'I'm not warring with the president. I'm working with the president,' Adams said earlier this month, drawing a contrast between himself and the mayors of Los Angeles, Chicago and other blue cities fiercely resisting the mass roundups of migrants. But it seems Adams has only delayed Trump's wrath, rather than spare the city from it completely. The Trump administration sued the Adams administration Thursday over its sanctuary policies, POLITICO reported, charging in its complaint that 'New York City has long been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country's immigration laws.' At 26 Federal Plaza, just blocks from Adams' City Hall office, Trump's Department of Homeland Security has been detaining migrants — including those with no history of violence — in conditions that surreptitious videos show are crowded and unsafe. So what could be next for New York as the president begins to intensify his crackdown thanks to $170 billion in the 'one big, beautiful bill' for border and immigration enforcement? Look to Chicago, as one example. The Midwestern metropolis was slapped with a Trump lawsuit in February over its policies limiting cooperation between federal immigration officers and local law enforcement. A recent Chicago Tribune analysis revealed a 'sharp overall increase in the number of people booked' in detention facilities in the area. Adams, once an NYPD captain, is so far still trying to play good cop with Trump — and has cast the City Council in the role of bad cop. 'No New Yorker should feel forced to hide in the shadows,' his spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said in a statement responding to Thursday's lawsuit. 'That's why the mayor supports the essence of the local laws put in place by the City Council — but he has also been clear they go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets.' The council isn't budging. 'Cities with sanctuary laws are safer than those without them,' council spokesperson Rendy Desamours said. 'It is the Trump Administration indiscriminately targeting people at civil court hearings, detaining high schoolers, and separating families that make our city and nation less safe.' But Adams has pushed back in some ways too, asking the Trump administration to inspect conditions on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza and speaking out in immigration lawsuits. Trump is targeting his hometown after an off-duty customs agent was shot in the face, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant in Manhattan over the weekend. That man was federally charged Thursday with possession of ammunition by an illegal alien while his alleged accomplice now faces an accessory charge. The president also touted a nationwide surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests this week, then tailored a press release to New York City about a 400 percent spike in ICE detainers and gave Fox News the exclusive to slam Adams for 'protecting criminal illegal aliens.' On Thursday, immigrant and civil rights advocates denounced the Trump lawsuit against the city as frivolous. Some urged Adams to step up, way up. 'New York must reject Trump's continued assaults to its Constitutional right to pass local laws that serve our communities best,' New York Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh said in a statement. 'Mayor Adams must fight back against this federal overreach and defend the well-being of all New Yorkers.' — Emily Ngo and Jeff Coltin HAPPY FRIDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE'S KATHY? In Buffalo, making a waterfront announcement and highlighting 'Get Offline, Get Outside' initiatives. WHERE'S ERIC? Schedule not available as of 10 p.m. Thursday. QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'I endorsed him back in February, and I have not spoken to him since February … If you had told me that the first mayoral candidate to call me would be Zohran Mamdani rather than Andrew Cuomo, I would have had trouble believing it.' — Rep. Ritchie Torres on his relationship with Cuomo on CNN (h/t Jacob Kornbluh on X). ABOVE THE FOLD SANTOS LOGS OFF: Convicted fraudster George Santos will report to federal prison today with no signs of clemency from President Donald Trump, POLITICO reports. The former House member remains loyal to his president anyway. 'I will not waver in my support for him,' Santos told POLITICO in a phone call this week. But does he hold out hope for an 11th-hour pardon or commutation from Trump? 'I don't think he can,' Santos said. 'He's in a position where he needs to put the country ahead of one man, and that's just a fact. He would lose support in the House from Republicans who have already capitulated.' The saga of Santos reaches a new — and perhaps final — public chapter this week as the serial liar begins his 87-month sentence at an undisclosed facility for a bevy of fraud, embezzlement and identity theft crimes. He's going out with a whimper. New York GOP leaders who once boosted him as the party's future — then treated him like its biggest albatross — aren't even bothering to bid him good riddance. Santos won election to a Queens and Long Island seat in 2022 despite a falsified résumé (selling himself as a Wall Street superstar) and served nearly all of 2023 in the House fighting allegations of campaign fraud (including spending on designer duds, lavish lodging and Botox). A White House spokesperson would not comment this week on whether there's a pending clemency request concerning Santos. Santos' fabulist-but-make-it-fabulous vibe has dissipated as his prison time nears. He said he's fearful of being targeted for violence as a gay man — and a former politician at that. And while he has managed to reinvent himself in small ways since he was ousted from Congress, including as host of the 'Pants on Fire' podcast, Santos said he sees 'no light' at the end of his incarceration tunnel. 'I'm not allowed technology at all, and I've been notified that I will not be allowed to do interviews either,' Santos said. 'They're shutting me up essentially.' There's not much left to say anyway, the one-time member of Congress said. 'I guess I put it all out there,' Santos said. 'To keep it simple, I should have done better, not for me, but for everyone else as well. Sorry to everyone.' — Emily Ngo CITY HALL: THE LATEST WHAT'S COOLER THAN A FREEZE?: Longshot independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden is one-upping Mamdani's plan to freeze the rent for rent stabilized units and has a proposal to lower the rent for more than 250,000 New York City tenants. Walden's plan would cap rent at 35 percent of income for low-income and severely rent burdened tenants and would directly subsidize landlords to make up the difference — effectively a city-funded version of federal Section 8 vouchers. He'd fund it by finding $348 million of savings in the budget, shaving less than 1 percent off the capital program by taxing the rich — enacting a 0.1 percent tax on 'high end goods and services' including stock transfers, luxury real estate and 'high-end jewelry.' 'Freeze the rent' is 'the other guy's slogan,' Walden said in a video posted Wednesday. 'We're about solutions, not slogans.' 'I don't see it as pandering,' Walden told Playbook. 'I see it as problem-solving.' — Jeff Coltin ADAMS REACHING NEW HEIGHTS: Former City Council Member Robert Cornegy is hosting a fundraiser for Adams next week, while the 6-foot-10 ex-pol's casino bid is seeking an OK from a mayoral appointee. Cornegy told Playbook the Wednesday night Fort Greene fundraiser had nothing to do with his lobbying work for The Coney casino. 'I told Eric's people, this has nothing to do with one thing or the other, and here you are, bringing it up off the bat,' he said with a laugh. 'He's been my guy for a long time,' Cornegy added. 'He's done a tremendous job as mayor.' Cornegy isn't the only casino connection getting in front of the mayor. Marc Holliday, who's pushing a Times Square casino with his real estate firm SL Green, hosted a massive fundraiser for the mayor earlier this month. — Jeff Coltin WHAT ZOHRAN IS READING: No single issue will be more challenging for a Mayor Mamdani than policing. But there are concrete steps he can take to reform the NYPD and curb its culture of impunity, 'The End of Policing' author Alex S. Vitale writes in The Nation. More from the city: — New York City schools adopted a new cellphone ban policy, but the chancellor vowed to make adjustments if there are issues. (POLITICO Pro) — Adams is staking his reelection bid on falling crime numbers, arguing to voters that he has made New York safer and can continue to do so. (New York mag) — A vote on the proposed makeover of a mile-long stretch of industrial Brooklyn coastline has been postponed for the fifth time this year. (THE CITY) NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY GUNS AND ROSES: Rep. Elise Stefanik is taking aim at New York's gun laws. The Republican, who's mulling a run for governor, called Thursday for a federal bill designed to override gun regulations in blue states like New York and California. The bill would block states from requiring loaded chamber indicators, magazine disconnect mechanisms and microstamping for handgun sales. The measure, which is also backed by Rep. Darrell Issa, is being trumpeted by Stefanik a day after moderate Rep. Mike Lawler announced he would not run for governor — a move that opened a clear path for the North Country Republican to win the GOP nomination. 'I am proud to re-introduce the Modern Firearm Safety Act to end the unconstitutional gun-grabbing agenda thrust on law-abiding New York residents by Far Left Democrats like Kathy Hochul,' Stefanik said. It's an interesting move for Stefanik, considering the broad support for gun control in a deep blue state like New York. Polls over the years have shown support for the state's SAFE Act, a sweeping package of gun regulations approved during Andrew Cuomo's governorship. A majority of New Yorkers have supported requiring permits for semiautomatic weapons. And Hochul has embraced efforts to address the flow of illegal guns into New York and touted a statewide decline in shootings. Yet gun rights is an issue that resonates deeply with the Republican base — especially in Stefanik's deep red House seat. 'Thanks to Governor Hochul, gun violence in New York is down to the lowest level in 20 years and more than 10,000 illegal guns are off our streets — but Elise Stefanik wants to undo it all to score political points with Donald Trump,' Hochul campaign spokesperson Addison Dick said. 'Stefanik would rather push Trump's extreme agenda than protect her own constituents, and New Yorkers will hold her accountable.' — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — Fiscal watchdogs warn state lawmakers and Hochul are punting on a special session to address federal cuts. (NYS Focus) — The governor is being urged to sign a measure bolstering protections for gender-affirming care. (Gothamist) — Hochul approved a law requiring schools to have cardiac emergency response plans. (Spectrum News) KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION FINAL VOTE TO COME: Emil Bove, known in New York for moving to dismiss bribery charges against Eric Adams, narrowly cleared another procedural hurdle Thursday toward a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate voted 50-48 to proceed with consideration of Bove's nomination, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins siding with all Democrats in opposition. — Hailey Fuchs More from Congress: — 'The bill is going to come due:' House GOP braces for Epstein crisis to intensify. (POLITICO) — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Trump administration to brief senators behind closed doors on the Epstein files. (Washington Post) — The many times Rep. Mike Lawler talked about being governor of New York. (City & State) NEW YORK STATE OF MIND — New York set to make phone calls free in state prisons. (NY1) — A proposal to revamp Brooklyn Marine Terminal was once again pushed back. (POLITICO Pro) — Former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano will be resentenced in early October. (Newsday) SOCIAL DATA IN MEMORIAM: Michael Cardozo, former New York City corporation counsel under Mayor Mike Bloomberg and a member of the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, has died. Bloomberg shared a remembrance on Instagram. (New York Law Journal) MAKING MOVES: Former supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jacqueline Kelly has joined Boies Schiller Flexner as a partner in its New York City office and is focusing on corporate and white collar defense and crime victims … Allyson Jones-Brimmer has been appointed executive director of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association. She has served as the group's vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs since November 2023 … Carlos Castell Croke has been promoted to be deputy director of government affairs at the NYC Department of Transportation. MEDIAWATCH: Adam Bernstein is joining the New York Times as deputy obituaries editor. He most recently was obituaries editor at the Washington Post. The announcement … Tanya Simon has been named executive producer of CBS' '60 Minutes,' the first woman and fourth person overall to assume that role across 57 years. She most recently was interim executive producer and has been with the broadcast for 25 years. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn of WIN … former NYC Council Members Domenic Recchia and Alan Maisel … Marathon's Liz Benjamin … Kevin Elkins of the Carpenters … George Lence of Nicholas & Lence … DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton … Laura Imperiale of the Brooklyn BP's office … Doug Turetsky … Brad Karp … Alan Chartock … Tatiana Tylosky … Alex Nguyen of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's office … … Alex Pfeiffer … Austin Marcus … Fox News' Katy Ricalde … Bloomberg's Mike Nizza … Robert Zoellick … WSJ's James Fanelli and Elise Dean … Jesselyn Cook … CNBC's Karen James Sloan … Consumer Bankers Association's Billy Rielly … (WAS THURSDAY): Lowell Bergman ... Sharon Yeshaya ... Michael Sugerman ... Arie Schochat Missed Thursday's New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
ICE moves to shackle some 180,000 immigrants with GPS ankle monitors
ICE moves to shackle some 180,000 immigrants with GPS ankle monitors U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed personnel to sharply increase the number of immigrants they shackle with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people it is targeting for deportation, according to an internal ICE document reviewed by The Washington Post. In a June 9 memo, ICE ordered staff to place ankle monitors on all people enrolled in the agency's Alternatives to Detention program 'whenever possible.' About 183,000 adult migrants are enrolled in ATD and had previously consented to some form of tracking or mandatory check-ins while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved. Currently, just 24,000 of these individuals wear ankle monitors. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. One exception would be pregnant women, who would be required to wear wrist-worn tracking devices, Dawnisha M. Helland, an acting assistant director in the management of non-detained immigrants, wrote in the letter. 'If the alien is not being arrested at the time of reporting, escalate their supervision level to GPS ankle monitors whenever possible and increase reporting requirements,' Helland wrote. The new ankle monitor guidance, which has not been previously reported, marks a significant expansion of a 20-year-old surveillance practice steeped in controversy. While tracking devices are cheaper and arguably more humane than detention, immigrants and their advocates have long criticized the government's use of the bulky black ankle bands, which they say are physically uncomfortable, impose a social stigma and invade the privacy of the people wearing them, many of whom have no criminal record or history of missed court appointments. 'This will be a tool used to extend the reach of the government from just the folks it can manage to put in physical detention to an additional hundreds of thousands more that it can surveil,' said Laura Rivera, a senior staff attorney at Just Futures, a nonprofit group that has done research on ICE tracking technologies. 'It's designed to turn their own communities and homes into digital cages.' In an interview, ICE spokeswoman Emily Covington did not comment on the memo but said that the administration is using ankle monitors as an 'enforcement tool' to ensure compliance with immigration laws and that 'more accountability shouldn't come as a surprise.' She said ICE still makes decisions on a case-by-case basis and officers still have discretion over which participants require tracking technology. The expansion will drive business to Geo Group, the Boca Raton, Florida-based private prison conglomerate that previously employed at least two of Trump's top immigration officials and donated over $1.5 million to the president's 2024 campaign and inaugural committee. The tracking program is entirely run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of Geo that got its start in the 1970s by selling a device farmers used to monitor their cattle. However, in one sign of ICE's widening ambitions, agency officials recently began looking for additional technology vendors because BI's capacity may not be able to meet the agency's full needs, said a person briefed on the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose them. Geo did not respond to numerous requests for comment. An ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the agency has a long-standing relationship with Geo and is 'leveraging existing vendors who have proven track records.' The new policy has taken many by surprise. One day last week, about 50 migrants huddled in a room at an ICE field office in Chantilly, Virginia, waiting to be outfitted with tracking devices. 'Everybody in here needs to either wear hardware or be detained,' one ICE official said, according to Megan Brody, an immigration attorney who was there with her client. Paola, 29, was told to report to BI's office in Manassas, Virginia, last month, where one of the contractor's employees told her she had to wear an ankle monitor due to 'new laws,' she said. Paola, a mother of two who said she fled Honduras four years ago because of an abusive husband, said she has attended all of her court appearances and complied with her mandatory mobile app check-ins for the time she's spent waiting for her asylum case to be processed. 'Maybe they've taken these drastic steps because many people don't show up to court or change addresses without reporting,' said Paola, who spoke to The Post on the condition that only her middle name be used because she is afraid of retribution by government officials. 'But some of us do everything right and still get treated the same.' ICE requires most undocumented immigrants to attend court hearings or periodically check in at field offices while their cases are being processed, though the frequency varies depending on a range of factors. An analysis of federal data by the American Immigration Council, an immigrant rights group, found that 83 percent of non-detained immigrants with completed or pending removal cases attended all of their court hearings from 2008 to 2018. A small portion of immigrants who are awaiting final resolution on their immigration proceedings are enrolled in ATD, which requires them to wear a tracking device or perform virtual check-ins using an app, as well as meeting in person with case managers in their home or a BI office. Enrollments in ATD peaked at 378,000 during the surge in border crossings under President Joe Biden and have declined since then. ICE says it considers a range of factors when deciding whether and how to track each immigrant - including criminal history, compliance history, caregiver concerns and medical concerns - but usually does not explain why any individual is put into ATD. Since the program launched in 2004, some participants have claimed they were unfairly subjected to surveillance despite complying diligently with the terms of their release and posing no threat to their communities. 'There were individuals that should have not been in the program and should have been released on their own recognizance,' said Hector Equihua, who worked as a San Diego-based case manager at BI for two years ending in 2018 and learned about the lives of the participants he oversaw from their case files, phone calls and in-person visits with them. Of the people the government monitors under ADT, the vast majority, or 84 percent, are required only to check in virtually to a mobile app called SmartLINK, which uses facial recognition to confirm their identity and GPS to confirm their location at the time of their check-in, according to BI's website and ICE data as of July 12. Ankle bracelets are used on just 13 percent of ATD participants but have been the only immigrant-monitoring technology to grow in use under the Trump administration, adding 4,165 new people since January. Wearing one of the devices, which are made at BI's factory in Boulder, Colorado, is like having a deck of playing cards strapped to your ankle. At six ounces, it's about the same weight as an iPhone. The devices are prone to glitches, have poor battery life, and sometimes leave bruises or rashes on the people who wear them, according to interviews with former BI employees and ATD participants. Michael Langa, a South African immigrant who had to wear an ankle bracelet for eight months in 2019 after he overstayed his visa, said the metal band also came with a psychological burden. 'It makes you feel like you are really a bad person,' Langa said. 'It really gets into your psyche and really damages your soul.' He said his case is still active but he no longer wears a tracking device. All of the people wearing ankle monitors are assigned a BI case manager and given a geographic area they cannot leave, which could be as small as a few-mile radius or as wide as several states. Case managers get an alert any time the person leaves this area, if the device is tampered with or if its battery runs out, at which point the case managers typically call the participant and warn them they may be violating the terms of their release. They may also escalate the matter to ICE. In the past, people who complied with the program were generally moved to less restrictive tracking and less frequent check-ins, a federal watchdog found in 2022. Now, according to interviews with some immigrants and their lawyers, the Trump administration appears to be reversing that policy: Participants who are fully compliant are being moved to more restrictive forms of tracking with little explanation. 'Why are people any more of a flight risk now?' asked Annelise Araujo, a Boston immigration attorney who says she represents several people who were outfitted with ankle monitors. 'People who have lived in the same community, in the same home, in the same job for 20 years?' Geo Group, ICE's largest contractor, is already benefiting from Trump's immigration crackdown. ICE has signed contracts to expand or reopen several Geo detention centers and to fund deportation flights on Geo's air carrier. This month, the agency issued BI a one-year extension on its immigrant-monitoring contract - bypassing a planned competitive bidding process that was expected to open the program to multiple new vendors. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, previously earned consulting fees working for the division of Geo that oversees immigrant monitoring, part of a pattern of revolving-door arrangements that includes several former ICE officials who obtained jobs in the detention industry, The Post reported earlier this year. A White House spokeswoman said Homan recuses himself from all discussions of government contracts. Geo told investors it has ramped up production of ankle monitors and is prepared to potentially track millions of immigrants. 'We have taken several important steps to be prepared to meet that opportunity, and we are very well positioned,' David Donahue, Geo's chief executive, said on a call with analysts in May. Because each ATD participant generates about $3.70 in revenue per day, a rapid expansion could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue per year, said Joe Gomes, a financial analyst at Noble Capital Markets. An ICE spokeswoman said Congress did not allocate any money for ATD in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, though the text of the bill says it does include funding for 'information technology investments to support enforcement and removal operations.' Despite Geo's preparations, there are questions about whether the company can meet the ballooning demand. For years, BI has limited its need for manufacturing by recycling old ankle monitors from one participant to the next, according to former employees. Much of its supply of the devices is old and in poor condition. In addition to rapidly producing new devices, BI would have to quickly increase its staff of case managers, or employees tasked with ensuring immigrants are complying with ATD. With each case manager already overseeing as many as 300 participants at once, they are already stretched thin, with little time to attend to individual requests, according to a 2022 investigation by the Guardian. Perhaps because of these constraints, ICE recently asked Geo to hire one or more subcontractors to help scale up the monitoring program, according to the person briefed on the agency's discussions. ATD may grow to include a variety of tracking devices and software tools other than ankle monitors, depending on what technologies ICE can purchase in a short time frame, the person said. Covington, the ICE spokeswoman, declined to comment on any plans to expand the program. When Paola, the Honduran mother of two, got home from the BI office in June, her 6-year-old son asked her about the black box he noticed strapped around her ankle. She told him it was nothing serious - knowing she couldn't tell him the truth. If she loses her asylum case, she knows, the ankle monitor 'makes it easier for them to find me and deport me.' - - - Marianne LeVine, Ence Morse and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report. Related Content Hulk Hogan was a well-known Trump supporter. Their ties go back 40 years. Mendelson reaches deal with Commanders on RFK site amid growing pressure Amy Sherald cancels major Smithsonian show over 'censorship' Solve the daily Crossword
