Thread: DHS to evaluate criminal deporting program AZ.

Department of Homeland Security to evaluate criminal deporting program

Critics: System failing to target worst felons

by Daniel González - May. 20, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Department of Homeland Security will conduct an internal review of a controversial federal immigration-enforcement program that has led to the deportation of thousands of immigrants in Arizona to determine whether the program has strayed from its primary goal of removing dangerous criminals.

DHS inspectors also plan to look into a burgeoning controversy over whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials falsely misrepresented the Secure Communities program as voluntary to persuade counties and states across the country to participate.

ICE processes deportees

All 15 counties in Arizona participate in the program that lets federal immigration-enforcement officials quickly screen all people booked into local jails. Arizona is one of 11 states fully participating in the program.

The review comes amid growing opposition to the program. Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said he would terminate his state's participation, setting the stage for more communities to follow. In December, the state of Washington announced it would not participate, and lawmakers in California and Massachusetts have raised objections about the program under pressure from immigrant-advocacy groups that say the program is tearing apart families and disrupting communities by deporting more non-criminals and low-level offenders than dangerous criminals.

Critics hope the review will lead to a revamping of the program that narrows its focus.

"It's like feigning that they are going after hard criminals but in reality they are going after moms and pops and anyone who falls into their dragnet," said Salvador Reza of Puente, an immigrant-advocacy group in Phoenix.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus this month also asked the Obama administration to immediately freeze the program, citing "striking dissonance" between its stated purpose of removing dangerous criminals and its actual affect.

Launched in October 2008 by ICE, the program has turned into one of the main immigration-enforcement tools in the nation. It has resulted in the deportation of more than 101,000 immigrants nationwide, including more than 15,000 in Arizona, most of whom were caught after being booked into the Maricopa County jail by local police agencies, according to federal data.

Under the program, every person booked into local jails on criminal charges is screened by ICE officials by automatically running his or her fingerprints through DHS computer databases. At least 1,298 counties in 42 states are already participating in the program. ICE wants to expand the program to every county in the nation by 2013.

Immigration-enforcement advocates and many law-enforcement officials have praised the program for helping to remove dangerous criminals from the country. With the program, ICE has identified and deported more than 28,000 immigrants convicted of severe crimes such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children.

But the program has drawn fire from immigrant advocates and public officials who say it is leading to the deportation of far more people convicted of low-level crimes or no crimes at all. They say it undermines public safety by making immigrants afraid to report crimes or cooperate in criminal investigations.

An Arizona Republic analysis in March of federal data through December 2010 found that 66 percent of immigrants caught in Maricopa County and deported through the program were either low-level criminals or immigrants with no criminal record. Nationwide, 60 percent of those deported through the program had been convicted of either low-level crimes or none at all, the analysis showed.

In a letter released Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., DHS acting Inspector General Charles Edwards said his office intends to review the program early in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Lofgren is a major critic of the program.

"The objective of the review will be to determine the extent to which ICE uses the program to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the United States," Edwards said.

DHS inspectors also will examine the program's costs, whether it is used equitably in different communities and the accuracy of ICE's data collection, he said. Edwards said inspectors also will look into a controversy regarding whether communities are required to participate and whether they can "opt out" of the program.

On Thursday, Nicole Navas, a DHS spokeswoman, said the program is a "critical" component of the department's new focus on illegal immigrants who have also broken laws.

She said the program's priority is deporting criminals and since its inception, the number of convicted criminals deported has increased while the number of non-criminals removed has dropped.Still, she said the DHS is conducting a "top to bottom" review to see if the program is being misused in any jurisdictions and to address concerns to make sure it focuses on immigrants who have broken criminal laws in addition to being in the country illegally, which is a civil, not a criminal, offense.

She also said Secure Communities "is not voluntary and never has been."

In March, DHS Assistant Secretary John Morton fired a contractor responsible for facilitating agreements between ICE and states and counties. Morton told Lofgren in an April letter that the contractor had authored several "unacceptable e-mails," presumably suggesting that the program was voluntary and that communities could opt out of the program.

The contractor, Dan Cadman, later wrote to Lofgren, claiming that ICE officials had instructed him against his wishes to tell communities they could opt out of the program in order to get them to participate.

Bridget Kessler, an immigrant-advocacy lawyer at Yeshiva University in New York, welcomed the DHS review but said the program should be put on hold. She sued the DHS on behalf of immigrant-rights groups to force ICE to release data on the program.

"The best course now would be to put the brakes on the program and wait to see what this investigation shows in terms of both the administration of the program but also its impacts," Kessler said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... ation.html

Do your god damned job and deport every freakin one of them. You should be deporting every single illegal alien you come in contact with. It is a total waste of taxpayer dollars to catch an illegal and then release him because he doesnt have a mad rap sheet. He still needs to be deported sooner or later because he is STILL HERE ILLEGALLY...If you release them then you will have to make the effort to catch them again later on after the hard core criminals are mostly deported. Stop wasting our tax dollars and deport every illegal caught then and there...

You've got that right! Illegal is Illegal! If we break the law, the book gets throw at us! There's NO excuse that illegals aren't treated like crimals for hopping the border ILLEGALLY! If our worthless government keeps allowing them to "opt out" of our laws, then why should we have to follow them????????? Can WE sue the federal government for picking and chosing who they "feel" like has to follow our laws?? Sounds fair to me!

This Is why you target ALL ILLEGALS !!!!!! There were two Illegal aliens Involved with this womans murder. One DID NOT HAVE A PRIOR CRIMINAL RECORD, the other (the shooter) had been previously contacted In a TRAFFIC STOP for NO DRIVERS LICENSE. They went from{ non violent illegals that pose no threat according to the Department of Homeland Insecurity} to convicted murders In a heartbeat. This Is a very slippery slope that they are traveling with regard to "SELECTIVELY" enforcing our Immigration laws. Here Is the video ... http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/ ... 4803550001