electronic anklets
I was shocked to hear about this pilot project of the dept. of homeland security, on the national public radio today morning. this project mandates some immigrants who have applied for permanent residency to wear electronic anklets, apparentlyt to track them. today's morning documentary featured a middle aged man who is working as an asst. manager in a big restaurant (I forgot his name and city). he owns a house, pays all his dues and taxes promptly. due to some mix-up in his permanent residency application, he found himself as one of the 1700 individuals selected for the initial trials, and is now forced to wear this anklet. and on top of it, he *has* to be in his home from 6 pm till 6 am every single day, for monitoring purposes. No Exceptions at all. and he should also appear in a local security office, called behavioural monitoring office, periodically. all this inspite of him being a legal immigrant!
I understand that monitoring immigrants is a need today, especially after 9/11. but to make someone wear an electronic anklet is a bit far-fetched. I hope the dept. of homeland security reconsiders its plan and come up with better and lesser invasive techniques.
9 Comments:
Makes me wonder if that person should even consider following up on his residency application. Whats the use of losing dignity to gain prosperity?
On the other hand though, if the application process duly mentions that, in case of irregularities in any kind of paper work, such an extreme measure is possible, then I guess they atleast put the onus on the applicant to get it correct.
oh my...electronic anklets...bad ahnn and staying home under surveillance from 6 pm to 6 am is bad!! :-(
Shocking to say the least. Kind of makes you think if its all really worth the effort.
Ramesh & Ranga, you guys have raised 2 points.
1: Irregularities in the application process might have led to this situation.
Actually no. one of the main triggers for this kind of surveillance is when the homeland security dept doesn't know the individual's current address. and the dept is partly responsible for that. inspite of prompt address-change filings from the applicants, the dept was slow to process them and maintain a current database.
2. Is it really worth the trouble?
Well, easier said than done for some people. these people have led most of their lives here and have all their family and friends here. they have paid taxes and in some cases invested in property too. Moreover their country is so messed up that they don't wanna go back.
Renuka, yeah its really bad.
Too very bad... its a shame. They aren't criminals by any count.. and these guys would talk abt liberty & human rights. sigh!
"the anklets will help prevent tens of thousands of immigrants who are ordered to leave the country each year from "absconding" -- going into hiding to avoid deportation."
Its not for everyone but just to people who need to leave this country.
Manoj, I hope for the same too.
Me, not necessarily true. its meant to be used for everyone, if they "find" it to be a
sucess!
United States is a country in paranoia and run by a paranoid.
:-) True this paranoid has really survived :-)
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