As a tool for keeping track of undocumented immigrants, GPS ankle monitors are fast becoming the standard for officials working along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Officials argue that the monitors are an inexpensive and effective way to make certain that immigrants released from detention come to their court hearings. But immigrants who are fitted with the ankle bracelets have complained that the devices are uncomfortable and leave them feeling like criminals.

Honduran immigrant Norma Urbina voiced her confusion over having to wear the monitor in a 2013 Boston Globe article, saying, “I don’t know why they put it on me. I’ve done everything they’ve asked.” Urbina, a mother of four fully aware of her responsibilities to her children, added, “Where am I going to go?”

Aside from just being uncomfortable and a social stigma, ankle monitors can be painful, often leading to swelling and cramps.

“Although it is plastic and lightweight, it still causes my foot to swell, and it becomes very hot when it is being recharged,” said Zully García, another Honduran immigrant, according to the NACLA Magazine.

As reported in the LA Times, Sister Norma Pimentel, a nun who runs an immigrant aid center in McAllen, Texas, says immigrants she encounters pray that they will not receive a monitor. Many are concerned about how to find or keep work with a GPS device.

Despite complaints, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is set upon using the devices as part of the federal agency’s “Alternatives to Detention” program.

Ankle monitors offer a cheaper alternative to detention, which costs an average of $130 per day for each illegal immigrant detained. On the other hand, an ankle monitor averages around $5 a day.

In June, amid announcements of several changes coming to border enforcement, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said that the ICE would be "ramping up" its use of ankle monitors, with the full intention of doubling the total number monitored from last year's 23,000 to 53,000 in 2016.

ICE officials maintain that the ankle monitors are used on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the threat to public safety posed by immigrants.

Still, the GPS anklet might be the wiser option for immigrants facing internment at family detention centers, which, according to a recent Huffington Post piece, have a reputation for medical neglect.

The nonpartisan American Civil Liberties Union has found monitoring programs to be more humane than detention, but has suggested alternatives to encourage immigrants to follow the letter of the law.

The ACLU has proposed "community support programs" to ensure immigrants get to their court hearings. In a release, the human rights organization said that such programs would help immigrants “understand their legal obligations," while "minimizing the damage to their mental and physical health and the disruption to their families and communities caused by institutional detention.”