Thread: ICE program deports illegal aliens who are serious criminals

Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011

ICE program deports illegal immigrants who are serious criminals

Program criticized nationally is operational in all 46 S.C. counties

By NOELLE PHILLIPS - nophillips@thestate.com

Earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly rolled out a program at Richland County’s jail that allows the agency to search for incarcerated illegal immigrants who also have criminal records.

Since April, the Secure Communities program has led ICE to identify 193 illegal immigrants and deport 25 of them from Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

Statewide, ICE has identified 3,778 illegal immigrants, and 1,025 of them have been deported since the Secure Communities was introduced in the state in 2010, according to reports from the agency.

ICE started the Secure Communities program in 2008 and has slowly been rolling it out across the country. The intent is to catch and deport illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes or are suspects in major crimes.

The program has received criticism from immigrants-rights groups, who have held protests in major cities nationwide. Critics argue that the program leads to distrust between immigrants and police and has allowed the federal government to detain people who are being investigated for minor crimes such as traffic tickets.

The program essentially is a data-sharing system. All people booked into jails are fingerprinted, and those prints are submitted to the state’s database and then forwarded to databases at the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“If the fingerprint check reveals that an individual is unlawfully present in the United States, ICE takes enforcement action — prioritizing the removal of individuals who present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by the severity of the crime, their criminal history and other factors,â€