US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was forced to release detained migrants and place them on monitored leave after growing concerns of overcrowding detention centers, according to a report.
Despite publicly arresting thousands of immigrants across the country as part of President Donald Trump's promise for "mass deportations," some detained migrants have since been released as ICE seeks to increase the space in their detention centers, NBC News reported.
"The agency's federal law enforcement officers do everything they can to keep our communities safe," an ICE spokesperson told the outlet. "In some cases, ICE is required to release certain arrested aliens from custody."
Individuals released from ICE's custody back into the US are then placed on a monitoring program, often using ankle or wrist monitors or regular phoned check-ins, sources familiar with the operations told NBC News.
ICE is only able to maintain about 41,500 beds currently, so migrants detained further from the southern border are more likely to be registered to the monitoring program. Meanwhile, those detained closer to the border are being kept in custody.
As the president looks to continue tackling his deportation goals, Trump previously announced plans to reopen a detention center in Guantanamo Bay. But while the president claimed that the facility could add "30,000 beds" to ICE's control, 2021 and 2022 documents reviewed by Drop Site News indicate that the detention center is only readily available to house about 400 migrants.
Immigration authorities are likely to keep running into this problem for the time being as ICE has continued to increase its immigration arrests, aiming to detain between 1,200 and 1,500 individuals a day.
Thousands of active duty soldiers may also be deployed to assist with the immigration crackdown following Trump's executive order declaring the situation a national emergency, CBS News previously reported.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is set to discuss what the troops' roles will be as he visits the southern border Monday.
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