ICE gives some migrants smartphones to track them, not for personal use

Florida state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, invoked a misleading claim about immigrants before the Senate approved new rules to prohibit homeless people from setting up camps in public spaces without state permission.

The bill prohibits counties and municipalities from allowing public camping or sleeping on public property without permission. The bill also requires local governments to post information on their website on campsite locations — shelters with restrooms and running water — and how people can get permits to stay overnight in specific public places. 

On March 4, before the bill passed the Senate, Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, asked Martin how homeless people can access that information if they lack laptops or smartphones.

Martin replied that homeless people have access to information as others do and that he had seen them in downtown Fort Myers charging their cellphones on power strips. He then invoked migrants crossing the southern U.S. border.

"This is the post-Obama phone era, this is the era where people are given smartphones when they cross the border and enter our country," Martin said. "So, there's a tremendous amount of information that everybody has, but of course not everybody has a cellphone, not everyone has the ability to look up that information on a website." 

Is he right that people who cross the border get smartphones?

PolitiFact called and emailed Martin’s office but got no response. 

Since 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gives smartphones or tablet computers to some immigrants who are released from federal custody after entering the country illegally and are awaiting decisions on their immigration cases. 

The devices have the SmartLINK application, developed by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the GEO Group, a private prison company. This app lets officials track the migrants’ location. 

Mike Alvarez, an ICE spokesperson, told PolitiFact that not all migrants are given a smartphone or a tablet for monitoring — the government gives them one only if they don’t have one at the time they’re enrolled in Alternatives to Detention programs. 

The devices’ features are limited, people can use it only for the SmartLINK application, for emergency 911 calls and to communicate with immigration officials. They cannot access the internet.

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The app requires that people check in with immigration officials by uploading a selfie or answering a call from their case manager, according to The Associated Press.

The devices also must be returned to ICE if the participants get a personal smartphone, are monitored instead through a GPS-device such as an ankle bracelet or a wrist-worn technology (such as a smartwatch that’s enabled only for monitoring), or have their case resolved.

We’ve previously fact-checked similar claims, including from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, that migrants get free cellphones. But this claim needs context.

Martin said, "This is the era where people are given smartphones when they cross the border and enter our country."

Some people may get smartphones when they cross the U.S. border, but Martin omits important context. These smartphones are not for personal use, but for tracking immigrants. The phones cannot be used to browse information online, post on social media or call friends or family. 

We rate Martin’s claim Half True.