ICE says it held off on monitoring tactics

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration officials said they never put into effect a controversial plan to mine driver's license databases to ferret out undocumented immigrants.

An official with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency told USA Today that aggressive proposals had been approved, but it did not implement them.

The newspaper said the ideas also included assigning ICE officers to police sobriety checkpoints and keeping closer tabs on foreign nationals locked up in local jails.

The aim of the tactics was to help ICE meet a target of deporting 210,000 convicted criminals in the fiscal year that ended in September. USA Today said the proposals alarmed immigrant-rights activists who were concerned about a possible quota system for deportations.

ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christiensen said, "ICE is focused on smart, effective enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators."