The Biden administration is poised to roll out multiple changes that will make it easier for illegal immigrants in New York City to avoid being tracked by the federal government, moves that are designed to obstruct the incoming Trump administration, the New York Post reported Thursday.
In December, the Biden administration is set to unveil its glitchy Immigration and Customs Enforcement app that will allow illegal migrants from physically checking in with their local ICE office in the city. The Post reported that the app is unreliable and will make it easier for illegals to flee federal authorities.
The administration is also set to unleash an initiative that will allow illegal migrants in New York to contest being monitored electronically while they await their ICE appointments, which are booked through October 2032.
A former Customs and Border Protection official told the Post that the policy changes will not make it easy for President-elect Donald Trump to abolish with executive action.
"This is an obstructionist transition," former acting CPB Commissioner Mark Morgan told the Post. "What they're trying to do in the last final day, they're going to try to put up as many roadblocks and obstacles and throw as many grenades as they can on their way out."
The policy changes ensure that Trump's attempt to undo them will be met with court challenges designed to slow down his vow of mass deportations on the first day of his administration.
"A lot of lawsuits get filed, maybe frivolously, but it just kind of stalls what the administration wants to do," a Homeland Security source told the Post.
The ICE check-in app suffers from "extreme issues," including not being functional on Android phones and not collecting GPS location of an illegal if used on a laptop, meaning migrants could check in from anywhere in the country and ICE wouldn't know it, according to the report.
With physical check-ins, illegal migrants in New York City have to show proof of current address, and the database constantly searches for arrest records of migrants. The app doesn't do that, the Post reported.
The Biden administration is also planning to use ICE's "Alternatives to Detention" program that would allow illegals to "contest monitoring and tracking" at any time, even to demand that it be downgraded or terminated, the Post reported.
If told no by ICE, illegal migrants can appeal, forcing a lengthy process.
"What it is doing is creating a lot of burdensome administrative paperwork justifying what they're doing now. I can tell you a lot of employees would just look at this is this is too much work. Most cases, they'll just terminate them from the program and not have to go through the appeal process," a Biden administration source told the Post.