U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now monitoring nearly 54,000 immigrants through GPS-enabled ankle monitors, a sharp increase from about 17,000 a year ago, as the agency shifts thousands of people from less restrictive forms of electronic supervision to continuous location tracking. The change has also boosted revenue for private prison giant Geo Group, whose subsidiary manufactures and operates the devices.
The figures were disclosed Thursday by Geo Group during its latest earnings call, reported by The Guardian. The company, through its subsidiary BI Inc., manages ICE's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), an alternative-to-detention system that tracks immigrants released into the community while their immigration cases move through the courts.
Although overall enrollment in ISAP has remained relatively stable at roughly 184,000 participants, Geo executives said ICE has increasingly reassigned immigrants from smartphone-based monitoring and other lower-level reporting methods to ankle monitors, which the company describes as its highest level of electronic supervision.
The shift carries financial implications. According to publicly available ICE data cited by the company, GPS ankle monitors generate more than $2 per participant per day, while the SmartLINK facial recognition and location tracking smartphone application costs approximately $0.96 per day. Geo Chairman and CEO George Zoley told investors that if the trend continues, the change in monitoring methods will increase revenue and earnings even if the total number of people enrolled in ISAP does not significantly grow.
The expansion follows a June 2025 ICE directive encouraging officers to place more immigrants in the supervision program on ankle monitors rather than relying on mobile applications or telephone check-ins. Earlier this year, Geo reported that the number of participants wearing GPS ankle bracelets had already climbed past 48,000 while enrollment in the SmartLINK app declined substantially.
Immigrant rights organizations have challenged the policy in federal court. A class action lawsuit filed in June alleges ICE adopted what advocates describe as an "ankle monitors for all" approach that subjects immigrants to continuous GPS surveillance without individualized assessments or meaningful opportunities to contest the requirement. The plaintiffs argue the practice violates due process and unnecessarily burdens people who have complied with immigration proceedings for years.
Advocates also say the devices can have physical, psychological and economic consequences. Attorneys representing immigrants have reported cases in which ankle monitors interfered with employment, caused discomfort or sleep disruption, and reinforced the stigma associated with criminal supervision despite participants not being held in detention. Previous reporting has also documented complaints that some devices overheated or were fitted too tightly.
ICE has previously said supervision levels are determined on an individualized basis using factors such as compliance history, criminal background and other relevant considerations, allowing officers to increase or reduce monitoring as circumstances change.
Geo Group has spent heavily preparing for broader federal demand. The company previously invested $16 million to expand production of GPS ankle monitors, anticipating that the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda would significantly increase electronic monitoring as detention facilities reach capacity. Executives have repeatedly said they believe electronic surveillance will play a larger role alongside detention in future immigration enforcement efforts.
The latest numbers underscore how immigration enforcement increasingly relies on technology operated by private contractors. While detention remains a central component of ICE's strategy, electronic monitoring has become a rapidly expanding business for Geo Group, allowing the company to generate additional revenue even without a significant increase in the overall number of immigrants enrolled in federal supervision programs.
