IMMIGRANTS INHUMAN-ANKLE MONITORS

FEDERAL AUTHORITIES shift away from separating immigrant families caught in the US illegally now means that many -

Parents and children are released and fitted with electronic monitoring devices - which both the government and advocacy groups oppose for different reasons.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is issuing thousands of 5.5 ounce [155 gram] ankle monitors that immigrants call grilletes, or electronic shackles.

The government says they get people to show up to immigration court, but that they stop working once deportation proceedings begin.

Attorneys and people who wore the devices or helped monitor those wearing them say that's because some immigrants simply ditch them and disappear.

Immigrant advocates and legal experts argue, meanwhile, that the devices - which are commonly used for criminal parolees - are inappropriate and inhuman for people seeking US asylum.

Congress first established the program in 2002, though  GPS monitors use use increased even more after 2014, when thousands of unaccompanied minors and families began traveling to the  US-Mexico border and asking for asylum, fleeing gang and drug smugglers or domestic violence in Central America.

Earlier this year, immigrant families were separated as part of a ''zero tolerance'' program.

But after presidential order reversed that, families are often detained, then issued ankle monitors and released as they progress through often lengthy immigration court proceedings.[Agencies].