Utah immigration attorneys say it used to be rare for their clients to be ordered to wear an ankle monitor while in immigration proceedings.
In recent months, they say that’s changed.
In July, the Washington Post reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to order immigrants on the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program to wear an ankle monitor whenever the option was available.
Since then, ICE has become the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the nation, according to NPR. Utah immigration attorney Adam Crayk said that with that massive funding, ICE officers are more frequently ordering his clients to wear ankle monitors.
“That’s where I think this funding increase is really allowing us to make interesting decisions with taxpayer money,” Crayk said.
In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said there has not been any official policy change dictating a rise in ICE’s use of ankle monitors.
“There is no new law or policy, or even specific direct funding, provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill pertaining to illegal aliens in alternative to detention programs,” the spokesperson said.
Though ankle monitors have always been an option in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program, Crayk said ICE officers were more likely to order his clients to check in through other methods, most commonly through an app on their cell phones. Ankle monitors, he added, were generally reserved for cases where the person did not meet the criteria to be detained, but still held some level of flight risk.
As more of his clients are told to wear the 24/7 monitors, Crayk said he has heard from his clients that they can be irritating, cause rashes and make it inconvenient to pass through courthouse security.
The devices can also be dehumanizing and stigmatize immigrants as criminals, said Liz Maryon, a volunteer for the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund, who coordinates with other volunteers to accompany immigrants to court appointments or immigration proceedings.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Liz Maryon, a volunteer with the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund, speaks to other protesters outside of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.
Maryon said volunteers have noticed that more immigrants are being ordered to wear ankle monitors. Some volunteers have spoken to ICE officers who have told them that the increase is due to a change in policy, she added.
Typically, Maryon said immigrants who are ordered to wear the monitors are told to immediately go to the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program location in Murray, where they receive their monitor and learn how it works. Often, Maryon said there is a language barrier between officials who explain the rules around wearing the monitors and the people ordered to wear them.
If an immigrant’s device malfunctions or they forget to charge it, Maryon said they often worry that ICE will make them wear the monitor longer or even detain them.
“They explain these rules,” she said. “If people are asking questions or have concerns, the response is like, ‘Well, you could go to detention instead.’”
According to Maryon, one of the immigrants who an SLC Bail Fund volunteer accompanied to receive her ankle monitor does not have her next immigration court hearing until 2029. She was told she would need to wear her ankle monitor until then, Maryon said.
“She was like, ‘I have attended every immigration appointment and hearing,’” Maryon said. “She didn’t do anything wrong. … When people see someone with an ankle monitor, they just assume this is a dangerous criminal."
Utah immigration attorney Kendall Moriarty said those assumptions have weighed heavily on her clients, who are trying to navigate their personal and professional lives with 24/7 monitoring systems strapped to their ankles.
“It’s a true violation of a person’s physical dignity,” she said. “It’s an outward mark.”
The stigma of criminality is even more problematic, she said, because most immigration cases do not involve criminal charges.
Despite the nuisance and social problems surrounding the ankle monitors, Crayk said attorneys don’t have any way to appeal ICE’s order for someone to wear one.
“ICE gets 100% discretion on how they’re going to implement that,” he explained. “For us, the alternative is custody.”