The Biden administration wants to provide temporary identification cards to illegal immigrants who are awaiting final decisions on their cases, Axios reported.
Officials are considering a pilot program that would help immigrants access housing, health care, transportation and other benefits, two government sources told Axios.
The program also would encourage more frequent communication with law enforcement throughout the legal process, the sources added.
The fiscal year 2023 appropriations bill included $10 million for the program, called the "ICE Secure Docket Card program."
"The ICE Secure Docket Card program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card," an ICE spokesperson told Axios.
With Republicans currently favored to take control of the House in the November midterms, the administration is hoping to get needed Congressional approval before the end of September.
Details of the program, and who would be enrolled, have not been finalized.
Axios reported that ID cards would be provided to migrants not in detention centers, and other unauthorized people going through the immigration or removal processes after they illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
The cards likely would include a QR code that would provide access to court information and documents via an app, sources told Axios. It's possible the program could lessen the mounting number of Freedom of Information Act requests for information about immigration cases.
The card will contain a photo, biographic identifiers, and "cutting-edge security features" to the mutual benefit of the government and noncitizens, Axios reported.
The ID cards also would allow unauthorized migrants such as asylum seekers to show they already are in the immigration system.
Axios said future uses for the cards could allow unauthorized immigrants to present to TSA agents and travel by plane or to access certain state benefit programs more easily.
The report about the cards program came after The Washington Free Beacon reported that federal immigration officials don't know the whereabouts of potentially hundreds of thousands of migrants who came across the southern border last year, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security.
Nearly 1.75 million migrants have had run-ins with Customs and Border Protection at the southern border since October, the Daily Mail reported.
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