Biden quietly scraps in-person check-ins for illegal migrants in New York

System to be replaced by a ‘glitchy’ ICE Portal app which insiders warn could make it easier for migrants to evade the authorities

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The Biden administration has quietly scrapped in-person check-ins for tens of thousands of illegal migrants in New York, according to reports.
At present asylum seekers waiting for a court hearing are required to check in periodically in person at their Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office.
These in-person checks are set to be replaced by a “glitchy” ICE Portal app in the Empire State in December, which insiders have warned could make it easier for migrants to evade the authorities.
Homeland Security sources told the New York Post up to 100,000 migrants in New York City will initially be enrolled in the new system.
They told the US paper that while in-person checks are linked to searches for past arrests or outstanding warrants, the app does not perform the same checks.
The gear-change comes less than two months before Donald Trump’s inauguration. One of Mr Trump’s key campaign messages was that he will carry out mass deportations starting on his first day in office.
The app reportedly has not worked on Android phones and does not collect GPS location data when someone uses a laptop to check in, the sources said.
Under the current system, migrants must provide proof of their current address for in-person appointments and the database will flag arrest warrants to ICE officers.
“We need that information that if these people don’t go to court, they have absconded, they have a final order of removal. We need that data … to go start looking for people,” the source said.
Ed Cuccia, a Manhattan-based immigration lawyer, said several of his clients had already been given the app when it was piloted, with the instructions to check-in up to once a week.
“It’s a little glitchy”, he told The Telegraph.
“I had people that it didn’t work properly for, they had to keep pushing the buttons”, he added.
But Mr Cuccia, of Cuccia Law Firm, said he does not think the system change will make much difference as the in-person checks are already “a bit of a joke”.
“There’s not much difference between this app thing and in-person reporting. You just say ‘hi, hello’”, he said.
He added: “The system is so massively backlogged, I’ve got people checking in then getting court dates for 2032, and that’s not even a court date, per se… It’s a date to come in to get your court date.”
More than 223,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022, with tens of thousands still housed in shelters.
Eric Adams, the city’s mayor, has consistently railed against the Biden administration about its handling of the migrant crisis.
“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” he said last year.
“This issue will destroy New York City.”
Kayla Mamelak Altus, Mr Adam’s press secretary, told The Telegraph: “This election, the American people sent a resounding message: they are fed up with our broken immigration system. For decades, Washington has endlessly talked about comprehensive reform, but delivered nothing of substance.
“Cities should not have to carry the cost and burden of a national problem. Democrats and Republicans must come together to pass meaningful immigration reform for the first time in four decades.”
Mark Morgan, the former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, told the New York Post that the Biden administration’s loosening of immigration protocol constituted “the opposite of a peaceful transition of power”.
“This is an obstructionist transition,” he said.
“What they’re trying to do in the last final day, they’re going to try to put up as many roadblocks and obstacles and throw as many grenades as they can on their way out.”
The Telegraph has contacted ICE and Mr Adams’s office for comment.
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