By KVEO NEWSCENTER 23
MCALLEN, TX (Nicole Collier) — Illegal immigrants passing through the Valley often only have the clothes on their backs. However, volunteers at Sacred Heart church in McAllen say in the last few weeks that has changed. They are seeing more people outfitted with GPS tracking devices.
“To see that a family, a mother with her kids is treated almost as a prisoner, right? Walking around with that big humongous ankle bracelet on,” described Sister Norma Pimentel of Sacred Heart Church.
Pimentel says seeing ankles with the devices strapped to them is becoming commonplace.
“Quite a few of them because lately the numbers have risen to a 100-150 a day. So it’s quite a number of them that have arrived with the ankle bracelets,” she said.
ICE says the devices are a part of their alternatives to detention program. The agency says they detain serious criminal offenders, and those who don’t pose a serious threat to public safety, can be outfitted with the GPS.
“It’s sad to see the families arrive with the ankle bracelets, they arrive crying, they feel embraced, they feel like prisoners,” she said.
Sister Pimentel says people wearing the tethers say they were asked to sign paperwork that grants ICE permission to put the device on them. However she says there has to be a better way. Bishops across the country are working with immigration to find it.
“To try to establish case management where we actually follow up with the families and we make sure that they send themselves to court, and follow up with their case so that it’s not just totally lost,” Pimentel said.
In the mean time, Sacred Heart let’s people passing through use it as a charging station, and place to get rest and encouragement for the journey ahead.
“I think that hugging them, and showing them that we are with them, and they are still a human person, and that their dignity is far beyond any ankle bracelet that they can put on them,” Pimentel said.