President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly starting a pilot program to provide migrants, released into the United States and placed into deportation proceedings, with identification (ID) cards.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw reported that DHS officials have confirmed the agency will begin implementing the Secure Docket Card program this summer, offering photo IDs to about 10,000 migrants who cross the United States-Mexico border and are subsequently released into the U.S. interior.
“[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] confirmed to Fox News Digital this week the pilot program is expected to commence this summer with the distribution of approximately 10,000 cards,” Shaw reportd. “While the agency stressed that plans are ‘pre-decisional’ and still subject to change, it is expected the cards will be issued in three or four locations in the U.S.”
A spokesperson with DHS told Shaw the “specifics” of the photo IDs “are under development” but stressed that they “will not be an official form of federal identification.”
In December of last year, after remaining quiet on the pilot program, ICE officials confirmed its development in a year-end report:
[The Office of Immigration Program Evaluation] is leading the ICE Secure Docket Card project, which offers a uniform, durable card provided to noncitizens upon release, and facilitates reliable access to commonly lost or damaged immigration-related paperwork. [Emphasis added]
As far back as August 2022, when Biden’s DHS first began developing the pilot program, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee started sounding the alarm.
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