Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls filed the Justice for Jocelyn Act, named after a 12-year-old Houston girl who was murdered allegedly by two Venezuelan men illegally in the country.
Instead of being deported after illegally entering, the men were released into the U.S. through an “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) parole program. One of the alleged assailants was wearing an ankle monitor at the time of his arrest.
The bill wouldn’t end the ATD parole program; it would limit participation in it. It states that “no alien may be released as part of any program under an Alternatives to Detention program unless all detention beds available to the Secretary of Homeland Security have been filled; there exists no available option to hold such alien in detention; and the secretary has exercised and exhausted all reasonable efforts to hold such alien in detention.”
It would impose GPS tracking and curfew requirements for ATD enrollees who are released into the country and placed on a U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement Non-Detention Docket (ICE NDD). The bill would require ATD enrollees on the ICE NDD to remain at a home address between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., according to the bill language. It also would authorize ICE to immediately deport illegal border crossers who violate the terms of their release.
Cruz claims that “Democrats’ reckless open-border policies prevented ICE and Border Patrol agents from acting, left thousands of detention center beds empty, and allowed these criminals to go free.”
Nehls says the bill will “improve the detention and tracking of illegal aliens released into the United States and would put the safety of the American people first.”
The bill has several cosponsors.
Former Harris County, Texas, District Attorney Kim Ogg has criticized the policy of releasing illegal border crossers into the U.S. and the ankle monitor policy, which she and many others have argued aren’t deterrents to crime and give “the public a false sense of security.”
Angel parents in Texas whose children have been killed by illegal border crossers have told The Center Square they want justice, which to them means the perpetrator is prosecuted, tried and sentenced to prison or death.
In Jocelyn’s case, the Venezuelans were charged with capital murder and Ogg sought the death penalty, The Center Square reported. They remain in Harris County Jail awaiting trial.
In the case of 20-year-old Maryland resident Kayla Hamilton, who was violently raped and strangled to death by an El Salvadoran MS-13 gang member, a jury sentenced him to 70 years in prison. In the case of Georgia student Laken Riley, her murderer, a Venezuelan illegally in the country, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In the case of another Maryland resident, Rachel Morin, the prosecution is seeking life in prison without parole for her rape and murder, allegedly committed by an El Salvadoran illegally in the country.
In these cases, investigators argue the victims fought their attackers in an attempt to survive, The Center Square reported.
Under the Biden administration, the greatest number of illegal border crossers were placed on the ICE NDD: 6.2 million in fiscal 2023; 4.7 million in fiscal 2022 and 3.6 million in fiscal 2021, according to an ICE 2023 annual report, The Center Square reported.
ICE explains that through ATD, illegal border crossers are processed to be released into the U.S. under certain conditions. In fiscal 2023, ICE began implementing four types of ATD monitoring: a SmartLINK Facial Matching program using technology to allow “participants to report compliance via an app installed on a noncitizen’s own smartphone or a dedicated government-issued device;” GPS monitoring “to ensure compliance with conditions of release;” checking in with ICE by making a phone call; and wearing wrist devices to provide “GPS monitoring, facial matching, and virtual case management functionality, including virtual check-ins and reminders.”
Many argue that ATD should be terminated and it makes it more difficult for ICE to find and apprehend those slated for deportation who are at large illegally living in the US.
As of July 21, 2024, “there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” ICE reported last year.
Among them are those convicted of, or charged with, homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), kidnapping (3,372), and commercialized sexual offenses, including sex trafficking (3,971), The Center Square reported.
