Status as of September 13, 2026. Supervision outside detention runs through two separate channels that are easy to confuse. Day-to-day electronic monitoring under ISAP is handled by BI Incorporated, a private contractor and subsidiary of the GEO Group, not by ICE officers. Check-ins at an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office are handled by ICE itself and arise from the person's release or supervision conditions, including those reflected on Form I-220A, Form I-220B or related ICE instructions. Both can apply at once, they have different schedules and different people, and missing either is treated as a violation. Since a June 2025 ICE directive the mix of monitoring technology has shifted sharply toward GPS ankle devices; that shift is being challenged in a class action filed in June 2026.
People released from ICE custody are often not simply let go. Many are placed under supervision — some combination of a phone app, a GPS device, telephone reporting and in-person appointments — and the rules that come with it are enforced literally. This article explains who runs each part of that system, what each form of monitoring actually requires, what counts as a violation, what usually happens after one, and how people ask to have a device removed.
In brief
ISAP is the monitoring program; ICE check-ins are separate. The app or the device is operated by a private contractor; the appointments at the ERO office are with ICE.
The form of monitoring is assigned by ICE, not chosen by the person. Since mid-2025 assignments have moved toward ankle devices.
Not every violation leads to detention. A missed immigration court hearing is much more serious: when the statutory requirements are met, it can result in an in absentia removal order.
Quick answers
What is ISAP? The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, the monitoring arm of ICE's Alternatives to Detention program. It has run since 2004 and is operated under contract by BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of the GEO Group. The current contract generation is ISAP V, awarded September 30, 2025 and effective from October 1, 2025.
Who decides whether I get an ankle monitor or the app? ICE does, at intake. The person does not choose, and the level can be changed later in either direction.
Is an ICE check-in the same as an ISAP check-in? No. An ISAP check-in is completed through the app, a phone call or a visit with the contractor. An ICE check-in is an appointment at an ERO office with a deportation officer. Both can be required.
What happens if I miss one? It is recorded as a violation. Outcomes range from a warning or an extra appointment to a stricter level of monitoring, and in some cases re-detention.
Does being on ISAP let me work? No. Work authorization is a separate question and requires its own document.
Can the device be removed? There is no form for it. A written request goes to the supervising deportation officer, and the decision is discretionary.
Contents
What ATD and ISAP are
Alternatives to Detention (ATD) is the umbrella term for supervising people in immigration proceedings without holding them in a facility. ISAP — the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program — is the part of it that does the monitoring. ICE describes the purpose as compliance: making sure people appear at hearings and comply with the conditions of release while living in the community.
Being on ISAP says nothing about the strength of a case. People are enrolled at very different stages: after release on bond, after release at the border, at an ICE check-in, and in some instances after appearing at immigration court. It is a supervision tool, not a finding about the person.
Why a private company runs it
The program has been operated under contract since 2004 by BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of the GEO Group, whose companies also operate immigration detention facilities. The current contract generation is ISAP V, awarded on September 30, 2025 for an initial one-year term from October 1, 2025, with a one-year option.
This matters in practice, not just politically. The person who calls about a check-in, who comes to the door for a home visit, and who installs and services the device is a contractor employee, not a federal officer. They cannot decide legal questions about the case, cannot grant travel permission on their own, and have no independent authority to end ICE-imposed electronic monitoring. Changes in the required level of supervision are determined by ICE.
The four forms of monitoring
ICE lists three categories of technology; in practice there are four things a person may be assigned.
Form | How it identifies you | What it requires day to day |
|---|---|---|
SmartLINK app | Facial matching against photos taken at enrollment | A selfie check-in on schedule; a working phone and a number ICE has on file |
GPS ankle device | Continuous location and movement history | Daily charging, typically one to two hours; no tampering or removal |
Wrist-worn GPS device | Location plus facial matching, messaging and push notifications | Same as the ankle device, plus virtual case-management functions such as check-ins and reminders |
Telephonic reporting | A voiceprint recorded at enrollment | Answering or placing scheduled calls and passing voice verification |
On the question people ask most, ICE draws a distinction between devices. It states that SmartLINK installed on a participant's own phone is not capable of persistent location tracking, while BI-issued SmartLINK devices are technically capable of it — and says that feature is inactive for ISAP participants. That is the agency's own description of its configuration, not something a participant can verify from the phone.
How each check-in actually works
An ISAP check-in is short and mechanical, and the failure modes are mundane. With SmartLINK, the app sends a notification within a window and a selfie is taken; a dead battery, a lost phone or a changed number is what most often turns into a missed check-in. With telephonic reporting, the call has to be answered from the number on file and the voice has to match. With a GPS device, compliance is continuous rather than scheduled: the device has to stay charged and intact, and low battery alerts are logged.
None of this replaces appointments. People on electronic monitoring are also given in-person appointments — with the contractor, with ICE, or both — at intervals that vary from weekly to several months.
ICE check-ins are a separate obligation
An ICE check-in is an appointment at an ERO field office with a deportation officer. It is not a formality: officers can change conditions, add monitoring, serve documents and, in some circumstances, take a person into custody at the appointment itself.
Two practical points. First, the appointment date comes from ICE, not from the app, and a change requires ICE's agreement in advance — asking the contractor is not enough. Second, appearing with counsel is permitted, and for anyone with a final order, a pending motion or a recent arrest, that is the safer course.
I-220A and I-220B: what you signed
Supervision conditions are written on a form, and which form it is provides an important clue to the legal posture of the case — though it does not by itself tell the whole procedural history.
Form I-220A, Order of Release on Recognizance, is issued when someone is released while proceedings are still under way. Form I-220B, Order of Supervision, is generally used for a person subject to a final order of removal who has been released under post-order supervision, typically when removal cannot happen immediately — for example because a country will not issue travel documents, or because withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture was granted. The legal basis for supervision conditions after a final order is 8 CFR 241.5.
Both forms can require reporting on a schedule, electronic monitoring, notification of any address or employment change, travel restrictions, and cooperation with obtaining travel documents. Signing generally confirms receipt and agreement to comply; it does not waive the right to counsel, to file a motion to reopen, or to seek other lawful relief. Ask for a copy before leaving, and note every date on it.
What counts as a violation
Missing a check-in — with ISAP or with ICE — without prior approval.
Letting a device go dead, removing it, or tampering with the strap.
Moving without complying with the address-change condition on the applicable order. For an I-220A, ICE requires written permission from the case officer before moving; an I-220B requires written notice of a change of residence or employment 48 hours in advance. Separately, noncitizens subject to the federal alien-registration requirements generally must report a change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving, on Form AR-11; the two obligations are different and both apply. Filing AR-11 on paper satisfies the law but does not update the address automatically in USCIS systems — the agency recommends the change-of-address tool in a USCIS online account instead. And neither filing changes the address on record with the immigration court, which is notified separately on Form EOIR-33.
Changing a phone number without reporting it, or becoming unreachable.
Traveling outside the approved area without written permission.
A new arrest or other contact with law enforcement. This may trigger review by ICE, and it violates the conditions where the applicable order requires compliance with the law or reporting such contacts.
Missing an immigration court hearing. This is separate from an ordinary supervision violation and can result in an in absentia removal order if the government establishes the notice and removability requirements the law sets.
What usually happens after a violation
Not every violation ends in custody. Depending on the circumstances, responses can include a warning, an additional appointment, reassignment to a stricter level of monitoring — typically from the app to a GPS device — or re-detention. Re-detention is possible but is not an automatic consequence of every violation.
For someone under a final order there is an additional consequence to know about. Willful failure to comply can also carry criminal liability: under 8 U.S.C. § 1253(b), willfully failing to comply with the requirements imposed under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(3), or knowingly giving false information in response to an inquiry under that provision, is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both. Prosecutions are uncommon; the ordinary consequence is that ICE revokes the release and detains the person. Pursuing legitimate legal challenges to the removal order is not a violation.
The safer sequence when a condition becomes impossible — a work schedule that collides with the check-in, a medical appointment, a family emergency — is to ask for a modification in writing before the date, not to explain afterward.
Home visits
Contractor case specialists conduct home visits to confirm that a person lives at the address on file. Visits may be scheduled or unannounced, depending on the supervision requirements in the case. The visit is about residence, not about the case: confirming the address is expected, while questions about the immigration case can be referred to counsel. Anyone with an attorney can simply say so and provide the contact information.
Asking to have a device removed
ICE does not publish a standard participant form for requesting removal of an electronic monitor, and there is no fixed standard. A written request goes to the supervising ICE deportation officer, and the decision is discretionary. What such requests typically document is a record of compliance over time, stable housing and employment, community and family ties, pending applications for relief, and any medical issue the device causes. Legal-aid organizations publish self-help guides for people without lawyers.
Two things are worth knowing before starting. Removal of a device does not end supervision — check-ins normally continue. And a request denied once can be made again later on a longer compliance record.
What the location data means for a case
GPS monitoring produces a continuous record of where a person has been. That record exists independently of the immigration case and is held by the contractor and ICE. It can corroborate compliance, and it can also document a trip outside an approved area that the person had not mentioned. Anyone weighing a decision that touches travel, address or employment should assume the record exists rather than assume it does not.
The shift toward ankle devices
For several years the program moved away from ankle monitors toward the phone app. That trend reversed. A June 2025 ICE directive encouraged officers to place more people on GPS devices rather than on the app or telephone reporting, and the effect is visible in the numbers the contractor's parent company reports to investors: by August 2026 GEO described roughly 54,000 participants on ankle devices, out of ISAP enrollment of roughly 184,000, with app enrollment down substantially.
The economics are not incidental. Using ICE figures, GEO has told investors that ankle monitoring generates more than $2 per participant per day against roughly $0.96 for SmartLINK, and its chairman has said the shift raises revenue even if total enrollment does not grow. ICE, for its part, puts the cost of ATD at under $4.20 per participant per day against more than $150 a day for detention. These figures come from the agency and from the company, and should be read as their own.
A class action filed in June 2026 challenges what plaintiffs describe as an "ankle monitors for all" approach. That litigation is pending; nothing in it changes present obligations.
Common mistakes
Telling the contractor about a move and assuming ICE knows. The systems are separate, and so is the USCIS address obligation.
Assuming an ISAP check-in covers an ICE appointment, or the reverse.
Letting a phone number lapse. An unreachable participant is a noncompliant one.
Traveling out of state on a verbal assurance rather than written permission.
Explaining a missed appointment afterward instead of requesting a change before it.
Treating ISAP enrollment as permission to work. It is not.
Spotting scams
Supervision generates a predictable kind of fraud: an intermediary who offers, for a fee, to get a device removed, to change a check-in date, or to "clear" a violation. None of that can be bought. Device removal and schedule changes are decisions of an ICE officer, made on the record of the case, and no consultant, notary or agency can direct them.
The second marker is payment. ISAP participation is not something a participant pays for. A demand for money to stay in the program, to avoid a device, or to keep an appointment is fraud.
Frequently asked questions
Does SmartLINK track me all the time?
ICE says SmartLINK installed on a participant's own phone is not capable of persistent location tracking. BI-issued SmartLINK devices are technically capable of it, but ICE says that feature is not activated for ISAP participants. The app does confirm location during required check-ins, and it uses facial matching against photos taken at enrollment.
Is an ISAP check-in the same as an ICE check-in?
No. ISAP check-ins are completed with the contractor through the app, a phone call or an appointment. ICE check-ins are appointments at an ERO office with a deportation officer. Both can be required at the same time, on different schedules, and missing either is a violation.
Can I choose the app instead of an ankle monitor?
No. ICE assigns the form of monitoring and can change it later. Since a June 2025 directive, assignments have shifted toward GPS devices.
What happens if I miss a check-in?
It is recorded as a violation. Possible outcomes include a warning, an additional appointment or a stricter level of monitoring; re-detention is possible but not automatic. For someone under an Order of Supervision after a final removal order, the consequences are more serious.
Can a device be removed?
ICE does not publish a form for it. A written request goes to the supervising deportation officer and the decision is discretionary. Removal of the device does not end supervision — check-ins normally continue.
Does ISAP give me the right to work?
No. Employment authorization is separate and depends on a pending application or an eligibility category of its own.
Official sources
Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
The agency's description of ISAP and the three monitoring technologies | |
ICE's answers on SmartLINK location tracking and facial matching | |
8 CFR 241.5 | Authority for supervision conditions after a final order of removal |
Penalties for willful failure to comply with post-order supervision requirements | |
The separate 10-day obligation to report an address change | |
How the address change is filed with USCIS |
This is journalism, not legal advice. It describes how supervision is structured as of September 13, 2026 and does not substitute for an assessment of a particular case: conditions, schedules and consequences depend on the form you signed, the ERO office handling the case and its posture. On missed check-ins, device requests and anything involving a final order of removal, consult a licensed immigration attorney or accredited representative, and verify details against the official sources above.