Thread: 31 New York Counties now I.C.E. Secure Communities UPDATED

I just looked at the Secure Communities Schedule and most of New York's counties will be activated in 2011.

The New York State Working Group Against Deportation has distributed a “Toolkit for Actionâ€

New York quietly added Chautauqua and Niagara counties to the list of Secure Communities about 4/12/2011.
Again without any articles that I can find, but they are now on the I.C.E. List. Now 16 out of 62 jurisdictions activated.

Deported by Secure Communities as of 4/14/2011
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-234789.html

The 4/19/2011 Secure Communities list adds:

Livingston,
Ontario,
Otsego,
Seneca,
Steuben and
Yates counties

for a total of 22 out of 62 jurisdictions activated.

APRIL 21, 2011, 3:40 P.M. ET.

8 NY counties join immigration fingerprint program .

Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Federal immigration authorities have signed on eight more New York counties to the Secure Communities program.

The 2½-year-old program red flags potential criminal illegal immigrants by running the fingerprints of people arrested by state or local authorities against federal government databases.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Thursday that Chautauqua, Niagara, Livingston, Ontario, Otsego, Seneca, Steuben and Yates counties are now part of the program.

From now on, when someone's booked there for a crime, their fingerprints will be sent not only to the Justice Department to check for criminal history, but to Homeland Security's biometric system to check against immigration law enforcement records.

There are now 22 counties in New York using Secure Communities and 1,211 jurisdictions in 41 states. The goal is for complete coverage by 2013.

http://online.wsj.com/article/APfc95073 ... 8aa88.html

RELATED

NYC wants to kick ICE agents out of it's jails

Quinn, Feds Clash on Inmate Records

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-235651.html

Cayuga and Fulton added as of 4/25/2011

NY ICE's annual counter protest of the illegal aliens' demand for amnesty

WHEN: May 1st, 2011 (THIS Sunday) at 2pm.

WHERE: 14th Street and Union Square East in Manhattan, in front of Phillips Ambulatory Care Center

(More info @)

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-236393.html

Sheriff’s Office Uses Customs System

May 1, 2011

By Andrew Carr


The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office is joining law enforcement in Niagara, Livingston, Ontario, Otsego, Seneca, Steuben and Yates counties in using a new law enforcement program provided through the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to Chautauqua County Sheriff Joseph Gerace, the program, called Secure Communities, provides law enforcement agencies with help in quickly identifying illegal aliens when they commit a crime and are taken into custody by police officials.

HOW IT WORKS

Gerace said the program connects the Sheriff's Office's systems to that of ICE, which then cross checks an offender's fingerprints with their database to see if the person is an illegal alien or has any warrants.

"The Secure Communities program is where ICE has installed and connected a computer system to our systems so that when we have an individual who is booked into the jail, his fingerprints are submitted to the Department Of Justice's biometrics systems, which checks against criminal history and then are sent to the Department of Homeland Security and checks against immigration," said Gerace. "If there is a hit, then they evaluate the immigration status."

"Secure communities enhances public safety by enabling ICE to identify and remove criminal aliens more efficiently and effectively from the United States," said Secure Communities Acting Assistant Director Marc Rapp. "As we expand ICE's used of biometric information sharing nationwide. we are helping to keep communities safe and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system."

Once the person is booked into the system and the check begins, Gerace said they are notified within a very short amount of time whether there are any relevant hits in the other agencies' databases

"We would know within a very short period of time," he said. "We get a call from ICE after they verify and validate their warrants."

With the expansion of Secure Communities to these eight counties, ICE is using this capability in 22 jurisdictions in New York State. Across the country, ICE is using this capability in 1,211 jurisdictions in 41 states. Since ICE began using this enhanced information-sharing capability in October 2008, Secure Communities has resulted in removing more than 72,000 criminal aliens - more than 26,000 of whom were convicted of violent crimes, such as murder, rape, kidnapping and the sexual abuse of children. ICE continues to work with its law enforcement partners across the country to responsibly and effectively implement Secure Communities and plans to reach complete nationwide deployment by 2013.

LOCALLY

According to Gerace, this program has already been fruitful. An illegal immigrant from Jamaica has already been taken into custody and turned over for deportation.

"We already had a hit," he said. "The Jamestown Police Department arrested a guy for reckless endangerment and unlawful imprisonment on April 14."

According to Gerace, "he hit this system, and immediately we were notified that he was an illegal and that they had a detainer warrant for him. So we were notified immediately that we were holding somebody on misdemeanor charges that is deportable."

IN THE PAST

Gerace went on to explain that in the past, a program like this was unavailable.

"Before, when they were checking the fingerprints, it was "offline" if you will," he said. "They checked them if they were sent to them. But here it is an automatic search against ICE's database to see if people are in the country illegally.

Prior to the implementation of Secure Communities, fingerprints taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into state or local custody were checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice's (DOJ) criminal history records. Once Secure Communities is activated in a jurisdiction, the fingerprints that jurisdiction submits to DOJ's biometric system to check for criminal history records are also automatically sent to DHS' biometric system to check against its immigration law enforcement records. When a match is discovered, ICE evaluates the specific case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action. ICE prioritizes removing criminal aliens convicted of the most serious crimes such as major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping. ICE also gives high priority to other threats to public safety, such as aliens with known gang affiliations, drunk driving arrests, fugitives or those who frequently try to game the immigration system.

The biometric systems are maintained by DHS's US-VISIT program and the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).

"US-VISIT is proud to support ICE by providing comprehensive, reliable information to assist in the smart and effective enforcement of our immigration laws," said US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are helping federal, state and local government better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this federal information-sharing initiative, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said Daniel D. Roberts, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

http://post-journal.com