34,600 Criminal Illegal Aliens ID-ed in Florida
Secure Communities program identifies 111,000 criminal aliens in United States
November 13, 8:51 AM
Tucson Conservative ExaminerAndrew
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are hailing project Secure Communities as making communities safer. Nationwide more than 111,000 criminal aliens have been identified through automated searches of FBI criminal databases. The program has allowed local authorities to run the fingerprints of crime suspects they arrest through the Department of Homeland Security's biometric database. These checks have been able to identify criminal aliens who have been charged or convicted of crimes in the United States, allowing immigration officers to remove criminal aliens from the country. "It enables ICE to identify and remove more criminal aliens, and those that are the individuals that pose the most threat to our communities," said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE in Phoenix.
The program launched in October 2008 has aided in deporting 16,526 criminal aliens according to ICE records. Local police and sheriffs' departments have not had prior access to federal immigration databases in the past, and have not been able to determine if someone they arrest is illegally present in the United States. The program gives local authorities a more uniform way of checking the immigration status of suspects. The most criminal aliens were found in the state of Florida. Florida identified 34,600 criminal aliens during the first year alone, and Arizona was second with 24,252. Arizona was one of the first states to participate in the program because of its close proximity to the border, and accounted for the highest number of dangerous criminals identified, said Picard. The fingerprint checks have allowed local police and sheriff's to more easily confirm someone's identity because many illegal aliens use aliases and forged documents.
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