According to reporting by Axios, the Biden administration is pursuing providing illegal immigrants with temporary identity cards as they wait for a final decision on their cases.
The Axios report details that two government sources revealed the administration is mulling over a pilot project that would assist illegal immigrants to gain access to health care, housing, transport, and other benefits.
The program’s design would also require participating immigrants have frequent communication with law enforcement.
So far any official mention of the program comes in the form of the 2023 fiscal year appropriations bill, which refers to the program as the “ICE Secure Docket Card program.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also confirmed the project’s existence, saying, “The ICE Secure Docket Card program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card.”
The Biden administration is s also pushing for Congressional approval before September, as they consider the GOP winning the midterms and the impact it would have on their immigration policies.
According to Axios, the ID cards will contain a QR code that would provide information on court information and documentation, and the cards wouldn’t be provided to those in detention centers or the removal process after they illegally cross the Southern Border.
The system, Axios reported, has the potential to reduce the amount of Freedom of Information Act requests made about immigration cases and would help federal immigration officials better track the whereabouts of thousands of illegal immigrants.
