Thread: All Arizona and West Virginia counties using ICE ID program

If your county is participating in Secure Communities (S-Comm), everyone in the county jail has their immigration status checked. However a "city" jail may not be ready to participate. Any local agency, with electronic finger prints, in the county, may participate. I suspect local citizens we need to prod the police depts, of some cities to participate. The local PD may need to work on the interconnectivity of their system.

All Arizona and West Virginia counties using ICE ID program
Mon, 2010-11-01 09:47 AM
By: Mark Rockwell

Arizona and West Virginia have become the latest states to have all of their counties use the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (CE) Secure Communities biometric information sharing capabilities.

ICE said Oct. 26, all Arizona and West Virginia counties were using the fingerprint-based biometric records sharing capabilities, bringing the total of jurisdictions using it to 746 in 34 states.

Delaware, Florida, Virginia and Texas also have all counties using the program.

Under the Secure Communities program, individuals charged with a crime and booked into custody are checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Through enhanced information sharing between DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, fingerprint information submitted through the state to the FBI will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records in IAFIS and the biometrics-based immigration records in DHS's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT).

If any fingerprints match those of someone in the DHS biometric system, the automated process notifies ICE. ICE said it evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action, including aliens who are in lawful status and those who are present without lawful authority. Once identified through fingerprint matching, ICE said it responds with a priority placed on aliens convicted of the most serious offenses first-such as those with convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.

ICE said since it began using the capability Oct. 2008, immigration officers have removed more than 46,800 aliens convicted of crimes from the United States.

Arlington County in Virginia has asked to opt out of the program because it fears it may prevent people from reporting crime. Other counties in California and Washington D.C. have asked to do the same.

On Oct. 7, Arlington County manager Barbara Donnellan sent ICE director Bob Morton a letter asking for explicit clarification on whether the county could op-out of the program. The letter, posed on Arlington County’s web site, said conflicting reports on that ability have come from DHS secretary Janet Napolitano, according to Donnellan. ICE director John Morton told the Associated Press Oct. 11 that counties could not opt-out and he would meet with county authorities to discuss the issue.

The IDENT system is maintained by DHS's US-VISIT program and IAFIS is maintained by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).

ICE is currently using the federal biometric information sharing capability in jurisdictions in the following states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/21745?c=border_security

Moving from Other Topics to News since it relates to illegal immigration.

RELATED

All Arizona Counties now I.C.E. Secure Communities

I.C.E. News Release

October 26, 2010

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-216308-sec ... ommunities

The following states have more than 65% of their jurisdictions enrolled in the I.C.E. Secure Community Program.

All other states do NOT.

AZ. 15 of 15 - 100%
CA. 38 of 58 - 66%
DE. 3 of 3 - 100%
FL - 67 of 67 - 100%
HI - 3 of 4 - 75%
TX. 260 of 260 - 100%
VA. 129 of 129 - 100%
WV 55 of 55 - 100%

www.ice.gov/
10/26/2010