Alabama I.C.E. Secure Communities UPDATE
Alabama joining federal program to deport illegal immigrants with criminal records
Published: Monday, April 25, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Mary Orndorff -- The Birmingham News
WASHINGTON -- Alabama is the last state in the South to begin using a federal program for locating and possibly deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Thirteen Alabama counties will begin participating in the Secure Communities system Tuesday, while most states have had some or all of their counties on board for up to two years.
The program, run by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, allows county jailers to share the fingerprints of people booked into jail with federal immigration enforcement officials. If the federal agencies find a match of someone without legal status and a history of crime, especially violence, they'll be targeted for deportation.
Since October 2008, ICE has enlisted 1,211 jurisdictions in 41 states in Secure Communities, with the intent of making it nationwide by 2013. The agency said it has led to the removal of 72,000 criminal aliens, more than 26,000 of them with a history of violence.
"Alabama is going to get on board," said Spencer Collier, director of Alabama's Department of Homeland Security. "We want to be proactive on this."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security first approached Alabama about Secure Communities last year, but the Alabama Department of Public Safety asked that it be delayed until the state finished upgrading its fingerprint identification system, according to DPS spokesman Sgt. Steve Jarrett.
As of March 23, 35 sheriff's departments in the state were transmitting electronic fingerprint information, but more are expected to add that capability in the near future, Jarrett said.
The 13 counties starting the program this week are: Blount, Etowah, Limestone, Marshall, Morgan, Elmore, Lee, Chilton, Autauga, Tallapoosa, Escambia, Mobile and Baldwin.
Ten counties each in Georgia and Mississippi are participating, as well as 77 of 100 counties in North Carolina and all counties in Florida.
Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina, which first started activating counties last year, have 21 counties, 11 counties and 13 counties, receptively, now participating.
"Secure Communities enhances public safety by enabling ICE to identify and remove criminal aliens more efficiently and effectively from the United States," Secure Communities Acting Assistant Director Marc Rapp said last week when some counties in Missouri were added. "As we expand ICE's use of biometric information sharing nationwide, we are helping to keep communities safe and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system."
The program is not without controversy. Some parts of the country are resisting, saying they don't want their local law enforcement agencies to be perceived as enforcing immigration laws, which deters cooperation from immigrant communities. Immigrant advocacy groups also challenge whether ICE is adhering to its policy of targeting violent offenders first, or instead using Secure Communities as an indiscriminate dragnet to round up noncriminals, as well. ICE's own statistics show some of those deported so far did not have serious criminal histories beyond their immigration status.
"If I'm convicted of a crime in Alabama, someone who was a witness should feel confident to come forward, but what Secure Communities does is the opposite," said B. Loewe, spokesman for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "It drives people into the shadows and makes crime go unreported."
Collier said Secure Communities is a simple information-sharing tool that doesn't require local police or sheriffs to enforce immigration laws or determine who is in the country without permission.
"ICE has total autonomy over that," Collier said. "They make that decision on who to deport, based on the severity of their crimes and their record."
The program only applies to people already under arrest, and does not authorize local officials to target suspects solely to check their immigration status. Under Secure Communities, the fingerprints that are taken at the jail and already routinely shared with federal criminal databases are automatically forwarded to federal immigration databases. Local officials say they don't expect it to require any additional training.
Collier, appointed earlier this year by Gov. Robert Bentley, said Alabama and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security started serious talks just recently about setting up Secure Communities in the state, and he did not know why it was not done earlier. States along the Mexican border and large urban areas are among the first parts of the country to sign up for Secure Communities.
Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry said Friday that Shelby County expects to be in the second round of Alabama counties to be up and running later this year. He said the county only recently learned of the program, and he doesn't expect to incur any additional costs because the county already shares fingerprint data with other federal agencies.
"There should be no cost to push a button," Curry said.Â
