Thread: Secure Communities Program: Should New York Stay or Go?

Secure Communities Program: Should New York Stay or Go?

by David King
May 23, 2011

As early as this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo could decide whether New York should withdraw from Secure Communities, a program that has local law enforcement agencies share digital fingerprints of those arrested with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.

Some members of the legislature along with immigration advocates are pressuring Cuomo to leave the program. They charge Safe Communities has resulted in unnecessary deportations and has made many immigrants reluctant to go to the police. Calls to Cuomo's office were not returned.

Regardless, though, of what Cuomo would like to do -- and he has not spoken out on this -- a question remains of what he can do. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently tried to opt out of the program and was told by the Department of Homeland Security that terminating the contract was impossible -- that the information would still be collected.

Sharing Images

Secure Communities is still being rolled out across the country and New York. According to ICE's Secure Communities website 41 percent of the country has been activated into the program and 44 percent of New York State -- including counties in Long Island, upstate and western New York. ICE is slowly activating more counties across the state. The effects are already being felt.

The plan is supposed to catch immigrants who are "hardened criminals," but ICE has admitted that 29 percent of the 102,000 immigrants deported under the program have never been convicted of any crime. Activists and legislators say the program has a dangerous and chilling effect on the relationship between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

"The fear is very real" said State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, "The program is designed to identify dangerous criminals, but 29 percent of those deported under the program have not been convicted of a crime. It makes people afraid who are victims or are witnesses of crimes. It breaks up families. It is not doing what it is supposed to do."

State Sen. Jose Serrano agrees: "Our communities are far less safe because of this program. Immigrants are forced far underground." Serrano says he hears horror stories "day in day out: victims of domestic violence who wouldn’t come forward -- they didn't want to stir the pot, get their families, or relatives in trouble, draw any attention. There have been stories about immigrants suffering under abusive landlords and employers."

From the program's inception in 2008 to May 2011, more than 7 million people have had their fingerprints reviewed by ICE. Of those, 197,000 were identified as likely illegal immigrants, with 40 percent of them in California.

The congressional Hispanic caucus is calling for President Barack Obama to place a moratorium on the program and the Homeland Security Department's Inspector General Charles Edwards plans to review it in 2012.


Opting Out


Gov. David Paterson signed on to the program in May 2010. Last week 38 New York legislators sent Cuomo a letter asking him to withdraw.

Legislators including Serrano met with a Cuomo staffer and were assured Cuomo shares their concerns. Now advocates and legislators have heard that the Cuomo administration will likely weigh in by the end of the week.

"I think the dialogue has been good," said Serrano of conversations with the Cuomo administration. "He [Cuomo] did inherit the situation. Gov. Paterson signed onto the program. But it is important we do all we can as a progressive state to legally opt out of the program to send the message that we respect our immigrants, that the legislation has failed, and we need comprehensive federal immigration reform."

Serrano added that he thought Cuomo showed great sensitivity as attorney general to issues involving new immigrants.

On May 4, Illinois' Quinn sent a letter to the federal department of Homeland Security informing them that the state would no longer participate in the program -- new counties would not be activated under the program and counties already activated would stop sharing fingerprint data.

Quinn charged that the implementation of Secure Communities was did not comply with the memorandum of understanding he had signed, which said the program would only target immigrants who were convicted of serious crimes."By ICE's own measure, less than 20 percent of those who have been deported from Illinois under the program have ever been convicted of a serious crime,â€

Interesting.

Regardless, though, of what Cuomo would like to do -- and he has not spoken out on this -- a question remains of what he can do. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently tried to opt out of the program and was told by the Department of Homeland Security that terminating the contract was impossible -- that the information would still be collected.

CHECK YOUR STATE:
Activated ICE Secure Communities Jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/hnbt7p SCROLL DOWN

Planned Nationwide Deployment
of the Biometric Information Sharing Capability
by Fiscal Year (2009—2013)
http://www.ice.gov/doclib/secure-com...pdf/sc-dep.pdf

Secure Communities Central Region Activated Jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/eLCHZ6

Secure Communities Northeast Region Activated Jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/eENsdW

Secure Communities Western Region Activated Jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/gfIDET

Secure Communities Southern Region Activated Jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/hwI1VN
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RELATED

17 new I.C.E. Secure Communities 5/24/2011

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-238988.html