ICE releases data on Secure Communities Program to identify illegal immigrant inmates
by sunita vijayan
September 25, 2010

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More than 200 illegal immigrants at Monterey County Jail have been deported through a federal program implemented in April, according to data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE officials said 203 inmates housed at the county jail were returned to their home countries as of Aug. 31, less than six months after the Secure Communities Program began in Monterey County.

Of that number, according to the data, 38 were convicted of Level 1 crimes which included murder, rape, drug offenses, kidnapping and assault.

The information-sharing system debuted in October 2008. It uses the fingerprints of recently booked inmates to identify their immigration status. The fingerprints are sent to a Department of Homeland Security database. If there is a match, ICE is notified and the inmate faces deportation.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said fingerprints are submitted for all inmates booked into the jail, regardless of their immigration status.

As of Aug. 31, Kice said, Monterey County Jail had entered 8,141 fingerprints into the system.

"Not everybody in the system is a violator," she said.

Nationwide goals
The system is set to go nationwide by 2013, paid for with some of the $1.4 billion the U.S. Congress gave ICE for its enforcement efforts against criminals with illegal immigrant status.

Since its inception, according to the data released, Secure Communities has removed more than 12,245 illegal immigrants convicted of Level 1 crimes.

Kice said ICE does not take people who are identified as illegal immigrants into custody until after the local judicial process is complete.

Before the implementation of the Secure Communities system, sheriff's Cmdr. Mike Richards said ICE officials conducted immigration status "sweeps" at the jail every few weeks or months. Because of the lag in time, Richards said, some illegal immigrants were able to escape ICE's radar if they bailed out of jail before the next sweep.

With the new system, Kice said, an immigration hold is immediately placed once an inmate is determined to be in the country illegally.

Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis said the number of immigration holds has risen significantly since the program began in the county jail.

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