Vast immigration surveillance program in dire need of reform, Biden administration warned

Letter from Democratic lawmakers to homeland security chief condemns corporate-run system as punitive and ineffective

US lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to reduce the number of immigrants enrolled in a controversial surveillance program and rethink the US government's exclusive contract with the private company managing the program.

In a letter to the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, the group of Democratic lawmakers demands urgent changes to the intensive supervision appearance program (Isap), an effort introduced in 2004 as a humane alternative" to immigration detention.