Federal judge agrees two ankle monitors on NC immigrant a ‘waste of resources’
.jpg "The Charles R. Jonas Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse")
A federal judge has agreed that the two ankle monitors clasped to a man facing immigration charges were a “waste of resources” and ordered that one of them be removed.
Arturo Altunar’s lawyer, who is also Charlotte’s top federal public defender, in a motion asked a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to remove one of the duplicate devices. One was ordered by the federal court. The other was ordered by federal agents.
In his motion, Baker quoted a federal probation officer who said “it’s a waste of resources for them to have two monitoring devices.”
Altunar and 30 others were arrested in June in Kings Mountain when about 100 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a fire equipment plant. Altunar and at least seven others were charged in federal court with illegally reentering the country. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler in mid-July granted Altunar’s release on the condition that he wear an ankle monitor.
Before probation officers could carry out Keesler’s order and fix a monitor to Altunar’s leg, ICE agents again took him into custody — this time severing him from his lawyer for about a month, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
When ICE earlier this month released Altunar, who is from Mexico, the agency also required that he be electronically monitored.
So for weeks, Altunar has been back in his Gastonia home, with his children, grandchildren, wife of 22 years and two ankle monitors.
Keesler on Friday ordered that the device required by the court be removed, writing that he “agrees that… duplicating location monitoring is an inefficient use of resources.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
