Thread: CA-Immigration status checked if arrested in Sonoma County

Immigration status to be checked for anyone arrested in Sonoma County

By JULIE JOHNSON



Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 1:27 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 1:27 p.m.

Anyone arrested and booked into Sonoma County Jail automatically will have their immigration status checked under a program announced today by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


Sonoma County is the first in the Bay Area to launch a program called Secure Communities, begun by ICE this year in jurisdictions using electronic booking machines. All fingerprints will be cross-referenced with records kept by the Department of Homeland Security as people are booked into jail. Those with prior immigration records will be flagged for review by ICE.

Previously, ICE staff visited local jails about three times a week and checked booking records for foreign-born inmates, said Craig Meyer, assistant field office director for ICE detention and removal operations in San Francisco.

Now, everyone booked into Sonoma County Jail will have their fingerprints checked against homeland security records in an automated process that won’t add extra work for jail personnel, Meyer said.

The program will increase the number of people flagged to immigration, though officials don’t yet know by how much, he said.

“We’ll have to make a choice on which cases we pursue,â€

California Counties 2009
San Diego
Ventura
Los Angeles
Imperial

Santa Barbara 1/2010
San Luis Obispo 1/2010
Sacramento 1/12/2010
Solano 1/12/2010
San Joaquin 2/16/2010
Stanislaus 2/16/2010
Sonoma 3/ 2/ 2010

[quote]
“There are individuals in the country illegally and they’re re-offending,â€

New jail program targets illegal immigrants

CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / The Press Democrat Sonoma County Corrections Deputy N. Jax scans the fingerprints of an individual brought in on a parole violation at the Sonoma County Jail on on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.

By JULIE JOHNSON



Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 6:59 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 6:59 p.m.


Sonoma County this week will become the first in the Bay Area in which anyone booked into the county jail automatically will have their immigration status checked.


Under the program announced Tuesday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the fingerprints of those arrested will be electronically sent to the Department of Homeland Security for comparison with more than 100 million fingerprint records. Those with immigration records will be flagged for review by ICE agents.

Critics of the Secure Communities program, which starts Friday in Sonoma County, say it pulls local law enforcement agencies closer into the federal government's immigration enforcement role.

ICE and Sonoma County sheriff's officials described the new program as an added tool to get repeat immigrant offenders off the street and out of the country.

“This is a common-sense approach: Everyone who gets arrested gets checked for immigration status,â€

March 3, 2010, 7:40 am
By MICHELLE QUINN
New York Times

Sonoma County to Check Immigration Status
Starting Friday, the fingerprints of those arrested in Sonoma County will be sent electronically to the Department of Homeland Security and checked for immigration violations. Sonoma will be the first county in the Bay Area to participate in the department’s “Secure Communitiesâ€