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Maria Briceño
By Maria Briceño March 7, 2024

ICE gives some migrants smartphones to track them, not for personal use

If Your Time is short

  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used a smartphone application since 2018 to track migrants who are released from federal custody after entering the country illegally.

  • ICE will give a smartphone loaded with the application to some immigrants who lack their own devices.

  • The smartphones are not for personal use, they cannot be used to browse the internet, post on social media or call family and friends.

Florida state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, invoked a misleading claim about immigrants before the Senate approved new rules to prohibit homeless people from setting up camps in public spaces without state permission.

The bill prohibits counties and municipalities from allowing public camping or sleeping on public property without permission. The bill also requires local governments to post information on their website on campsite locations — shelters with restrooms and running water — and how people can get permits to stay overnight in specific public places. 

On March 4, before the bill passed the Senate, Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, asked Martin how homeless people can access that information if they lack laptops or smartphones.

Martin replied that homeless people have access to information as others do and that he had seen them in downtown Fort Myers charging their cellphones on power strips. He then invoked migrants crossing the southern U.S. border.

"This is the post-Obama phone era, this is the era where people are given smartphones when they cross the border and enter our country," Martin said. "So, there's a tremendous amount of information that everybody has, but of course not everybody has a cellphone, not everyone has the ability to look up that information on a website." 

Is he right that people who cross the border get smartphones?

PolitiFact called and emailed Martin’s office but got no response. 

Since 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gives smartphones or tablet computers to some immigrants who are released from federal custody after entering the country illegally and are awaiting decisions on their immigration cases. 

The devices have the SmartLINK application, developed by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the GEO Group, a private prison company. This app lets officials track the migrants’ location. 

Mike Alvarez, an ICE spokesperson, told PolitiFact that not all migrants are given a smartphone or a tablet for monitoring — the government gives them one only if they don’t have one at the time they’re enrolled in Alternatives to Detention programs. 

The devices’ features are limited, people can use it only for the SmartLINK application, for emergency 911 calls and to communicate with immigration officials. They cannot access the internet.

The app requires that people check in with immigration officials by uploading a selfie or answering a call from their case manager, according to The Associated Press.

The devices also must be returned to ICE if the participants get a personal smartphone, are monitored instead through a GPS-device such as an ankle bracelet or a wrist-worn technology (such as a smartwatch that’s enabled only for monitoring), or have their case resolved.

We’ve previously fact-checked similar claims, including from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, that migrants get free cellphones. But this claim needs context.

Our ruling

Martin said, "This is the era where people are given smartphones when they cross the border and enter our country."

Some people may get smartphones when they cross the U.S. border, but Martin omits important context. These smartphones are not for personal use, but for tracking immigrants. The phones cannot be used to browse information online, post on social media or call friends or family. 

We rate Martin’s claim Half True.

 

Our Sources

Email interview with Mike Alvarez, deputy press secretary of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, March 5, 2024

BI. COM, Strengthening Communities Through Innovation, accessed March 5, 2024

BI, BI SmartLINK, accessed March 6, 2024

ICE, Alternatives to Detention, accessed March 5, 2024

Florida House of Representatives, CS/CS/SB 1530 - Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping, accessed March 5, 2024

Florida Channel, 3/4/24 Senate Session, March 4, 2024

PolitiFact, Wittman skips key information about smartphones being given to immigrants, April 19, 2022

PolitiFact, Francis Suarez’s misleading claim about millions of migrants getting free cellphones, plane tickets, July 28, 2023

PolitiFact, Claim about smartphones given to immigrants misses key context: they’re used for tracking, April 14, 2022

The Florida Senate, CS/CS/HB 1365: Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping, accessed March 6, 2024

 

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ICE gives some migrants smartphones to track them, not for personal use

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