The Department of Homeland Security is expanding a controversial new policy that began in Hartford, CT to Denver and Atlanta: Those ordered deported will be jailed immediately and no longer allowed time to put their affairs in order:

Immigration-law experts said the program violates constitutional rights and called for less costly alternatives. "Jailing and the restraint of physical movement is the greatest power that government can wield over the individual in our society. Unfortunately, with this policy, the Department of Homeland Security has eschewed case-by-case consideration in favor of a blanket detention policy that violates basic due-process principles," said Marshall Fitz, associate director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, an advocacy group.

Where are we going to put them?

It will add hundreds of new immigrants to a rapidly growing noncitizen prison population. The number of detained immigrants has increased from a daily average of 7,444 in 1994 to 21,500 last year, according to federal statistics....Federal immigration officials have been lobbying to expand the prison system that holds them.

There are better alternatives:

Immigrant-rights advocates say there are cheaper alternatives that respect civil liberties. Many call for releasing and monitoring deportable immigrants using ankle bracelets, which can cost as little as $4 a day compared with $85 per day in immigration detention centers. Immigration officials say they are trying such measures in a handful of cities but cited no specifics.