The Department of Homeland Security is experimenting with a controversial new method to keep better track of immigrants who are applying to remain in the United States. It is requiring aliens in eight cities to wear electronic monitors 24 hours a day.

The ankle bracelets are the same monitors that some rapists and other convicted criminals have to wear on parole. But the government's pilot project is putting monitors on aliens who have never been accused of a crime. So far, the Department of Homeland Security has put electronic monitors on more than 1,700 immigrants.

Update: The transcript to the NPR report ends with this statement by the Homeland Security Official Victor Certa:

ZWERDLING: Certa says his department will experiment with electronic monitors for at least six more months, and he says if they like the results, then Homeland Security might require every non-citizen who's applying to stay here to wear a monitor, at least for a while, unless they're waiting in jail. Daniel Zwerdling, NPR News.

The introduction states:

The Department of Homeland Security is experimenting with a controversial new method to keep better track of immigrants who are applying to stay in the United States. In eight cities, it is requiring immigrants whose status is being challenged by the government to wear electronic monitors 24 hours a day. These are the same monitors that some rapists and other criminals have to wear on parole. This pilot project is putting monitors on immigrants who've never been accused of a crime. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports.

The report focuses on an immigrant named Amilcar Daros, who owns a house in the U.S., has a good job, pays taxes and has never been accused of a crime. He is appealing an order of deportation.

ZWERDLING: Daros has not committed a crime. Instead, here's what he has done. Five years ago, Daros came to America from Beliz. He came legally, and then he applied to settle in the United States. Immigration officials denied his application and said they're going to deport him, so Daros hired a lawyer and they're appealing his case in court. But while he's appealing, officials at Homeland Security have ordered him to wear the electronic monitor, and they've ordered him to stay in his house from 6 PM until 6 AM every single day. If Daros tried to sneak out of his house during those 12 hours, his ankle bracelet would sound an alarm at a national computer center in Indiana. He'd be in trouble.

Mr. Daros has worked in the same restaurant for five years. He is now an assistant manager, supervising 50 employees during his shift.

The Homeland Security Offical says:

ZWERDLING: Victor Certa runs a division in Homeland Security called Detention and Removal Operations. The laws say that Homeland Security can detain any aliens while officials are deciding whether they can stay in the country or have to leave, especially if officials think the aliens threaten public safety or are likely to run away, and last year the government put tens of thousands of immigrants in jail for that reason. Certa says he wants to find a better system than jails, mainly because he says jails are so expensive. He says electronic monitors might be a cheaper way to get immigrants to follow the rules while the government's deciding their fate.

As to the Department of Justice report that did not, as Mr. Certa say, find that 85% of those ordered deported flee:

ZWERDLING: That's a pretty shocking statistic. Certa's spokesman says it comes from a study by the Justice Department. But if you actually read the Justice study, you'll find that the investigators did not say what Certa claims. Their study did find that about 85 percent of the aliens who were supposed to be deported during a recent year did not get deported, but the study criticized the immigration agency itself for causing part of the problem. Bo Cooper was the agency's general counsel. He says their records were so disorganized and inaccurate, that when they needed to contact immigrants, they often didn't know where to mail the letter.

Mr. BO COOPER (General Counsel): There were large numbers of instances in which people would send in notice that they had changed addresses, but that information wouldn't be collected and put into a usable storage by the INS so that when it came time to know where the person was and take action, the INS didn't know.

ZWERDLING: Cooper says no one has figured out how many aliens deliberately cheat and how many are innocent victims of government mismanagement. Congress has ordered immigration officials to overhaul their system and keep better track of aliens, but Congress hasn't said anything about electronic bracelets, and that brings us back to Amilcar Daros in Minneapolis.

So, if you apply for residency in the U.S., are turned down by immigration officials and appeal, you will have to wear a bracelet. Is it better than being detained? Yes. Should we being doing either indiscriminately, without regard for individual circumstances and public safety? No.