Local jurisdictions find they can't opt out of federal immigration enforcement program

[Derechos]

Thursday, September 30, 2010; 10:59 PM

The Obama administration is making it virtually impossible for Arlington County, the District and other jurisdictions to refuse to participate in a controversial immigration enforcement program that uses fingerprints gathered by local law enforcement agencies to identify illegal immigrants.

Participation in the program, called Secure Communities, was widely believed to be voluntary - a perception reinforced by a Sept 7 letter sent to Congress by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. This week, Arlington joined the District, San Francisco and Santa Clara County, Calif., in voting to opt out of the program.

But the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency now says that opting out of the program is not a realistic possibility - and never was.

Secure Communities, which operates in 32 states and will soon be running nationwide, relies on the fingerprints collected by local authorities when a person is charged with anything from a traffic violation to murder. The fingerprints are sent to state police, and then to the FBI, for criminal background checks.

Under the two-year-old program, ICE is able to access the information sent to the FBI. If the fingerprint matches that of someone known to be in the country illegally, ICE orders the immigrant detained as a first step toward deportation.

Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have been removed from the United States under the program, which the administration has made a centerpiece of its effort to focus immigration enforcement on criminals. But those deportees include many thousands who have committed minor offenses or no crimes at all, which has made the program a source of increasing concern to immigrant rights groups.

A senior ICE official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the involuntary nature of the program, said: "Secure Communities is not based on state or local cooperation in federal law enforcement. The program's foundation is information sharing between FBI and ICE. State and local law enforcement agencies are going to continue to fingerprint people and those fingerprints are forwarded to FBI for criminal checks. ICE will take immigration action appropriately."

The only way a local jurisdiction could opt out of the program is if a state refused to send fingerprints to the FBI. Since police and prosecutors need to know the criminal histories of people they arrest, it is not realistic for states to withhold fingerprints from the FBI - which means it is impossible to withhold them from ICE.

The revelation that the program is not really optional stunned Arlington County Board member J. Walter Tejada (D), who spearheaded a months-long effort to evaluate Secure Communities with residents, lawyers and county officials. "It is most frustrating," he said. "Communities were researching this. Attorneys looked at it pro bono. All of that could have been avoided. People spent all summer thinking about this."

Tejada pointed to Napolitano's recent letter to Congress, in which she wrote, "A local law enforcement agency that does not wish to participate in the Secure Communities deployment plan must formally notify the Assistant Director for the Secure Communities program, David Venturella." In a briefing paper, ICE also said that if a city or county did not want to participate, the agency was amenable to "removing the jurisdiction from the deployment plan."

Snip

While many law enforcement agencies across the country have embraced Secure Communities, Graham's concerns have been echoed by some sheriffs and police chiefs. They fear the program will make undocumented immigrants unwilling to report crimes.

"In a domestic violence case, it is not that unusual for police to arrive and arrest both parties and let the evidence get sorted out later" at the police station, said Eileen Hirst, chief of staff to San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who has been fighting for months to get his county removed from Secure Communities.

Officers might fingerprint both parties to see whether they have criminal records, she said. If the domestic violence victim is an unauthorized immigrant, ICE can tell police to detain him or her.

"By the time the details get sorted out, he or she can be on an ICE detainer and on the way to a detention facility," Hirst said. "This can make people reluctant to call police when they should."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/30/AR2010093007225_pf.html

[Derechos]

1. Could be poorly sourced article

"A senior ICE official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the involuntary nature of the program, said: "Secure Communities is not based on state or local cooperation in federal law enforcement. The program's foundation is information sharing between FBI and ICE. State and local law enforcement agencies are going to continue to fingerprint people and those fingerprints are forwarded to FBI for criminal checks. ICE will take immigration action appropriately.""

Advocate groups believe that this could be the result of irresponsible journalism as the entire claim rests on an anonymous source.

[atreides1]

2. I politely disagree with your assessment

In reality this "source" is only anonymous to the reader, not to the reporter who wrote the story. So, it really doesn't make it a poorly sourced article, just one where the source hasn't been identified to the general public.(So much for that promise of transparency)

And, so far no one from DHS or ICE has stepped forward to refute what this anonymous source has stated.

[Derechos]

3. On the record statements that contradict this "anonymous source".

Finally on August 17, 2010, ICE released a memo entitled, “Setting the Record Straight” which sets forth an opt-out policy:

If a jurisdiction does not wish to activate on its scheduled date in the Secure Communities deployment plan, it must formally notify its state identification bureau and ICE in writing (email, letter, or fax). Upon receipt of that information, ICE will request a meeting with federal partners, the jurisdiction, and the state to discuss any issues and come to a resolution, which may include adjusting the jurisdiction’s activation date in or removing the jurisdiction from the deployment plan.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano later confirmed that process to be accurate in a letter in response to Rep. Lofgren. (Her letter can be accessed here http://crocodoc.com/yzmmKP).


http://immigrationimpact.com/2010/10/01/counties-say-no-to-ices-secure-communities-program-but-is-opting-out-possible/

Unless Sec. Napolitano comes out and contradicts her earlier letter and that of Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich that clearly state local governments can opt out, those public, named, on the record statements should hold more substantive weight than some anonymous source.

[westerebus]

4. For what its worth.

There are two systems available for law enforcement officers to use. NCIC which is national criminal information center run by the Feds. VCIN which is the Virginia criminal information network run by the state.

Depending on which is run, thought most run both, you don't get a "hit" on illegals unless there is prior information in there.

Social security numbers and DL numbers if real work but not all the time.

Do you have any idea how many false hits happen on Jose Gonzales, hispanic male, mid twenty's, five foot seven, one fifty, brown and brown?

As long as they aren't drunk or caused a traffic accident and their DL and insurance is current, most will not waste the time if the vehicle comes back clean.

Now there are plenty of LEO's out there with a less than pleasing personality. That would bust their own grand mother given the chance.

Then there's the we do what we got to do and go home to the wife and kids types. If it entails hours of paper work and authorizations from the lords on high who have no wish to disturbed unless reporters are there, guess what happens?

Traffic tickets are money makers. Are the Fed going to pump millions into local ICE operations using local cops? That's when you got a program that's paying to make numbers.