Thread: Secure Communities' end raises concerns

Secure Communities' end raises concerns

Published: Dec. 7, 2014 Updated: 10:43 p.m.

FILE PHOTO: PAUL RODRIGUEZ , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Both sides of the immigration debate are wondering what will happen now that the detainment program has shut down.

Immigration rights supporters had long argued for an end to the Secure Communities Program, a controversial strategy of having police detain people on behalf of federal agents.

President Obama shut down the program last month as part of his executive actions on immigration. But hegave the same people something else to worry about: the president’s new Priority Enforcement Program, or PEP.

“We’re all going to be keeping a very close eye on how PEP plays out on a local level and whether past problems related to overbroad enforcement, racial profiling and civil rights violations are going to repeat,” said Annie Lai, UC Irvine assistant clinical professor of law and co-director of the school’s Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Those supporting Secure Communities, who argued that dismantling it was a mistake that will hamper public safety, aren’t sure about PEP, either.

“As a practical matter, that means large numbers of people living here illegally, involved in crimes, will not face deportation because there’s no way ICE could get to them,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit that advocates for lower immigration and stricter law enforcement.

Under Secure Communities, local law enforcement agencies kept suspected undocumented immigrants in custody for up to 48 additional hours after they served their sentences, or were otherwise cleared for release, to give immigration officials time to pick them up for detention. Critics argued that it led to the deportation of nonviolent criminals and helped foster a distrust between immigrant communities and local police.

Successfully challenged in courts, more than a hundred local and state governments, including Orange County, ended the program this year, ceasing their extra holds for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In June, California Attorney General Kamala Harris warned law enforcement agencies that they could be sued if they detained inmates at the request of federal immigration authorities.

That followed a high-profile state law called the TRUST Act, effective since Jan. 1, limiting when local police can detain someone for ICE.

But while ending the detainments, some agencies – including the sheriff’s departments in Orange and Los Angeles counties – adopted another procedure. Their local jails contact ICE before suspected unauthorized immigrants are released, so ICE agents can be on hand to detain them for deportation proceedings.

Similar notifications are a component of PEP, which continues the practice of sharing fingerprint-based biometric data between agencies.

Vaughan, whose group wanted to keep the old program, said swapping notifications for actual detainments substitutes the judgment of ICE agents with that of local political leaders, who can influence their law enforcement agencies.

“That’s a problem when immigration enforcement gets politicized,” she said.

The difference between the old program and the new one may be more significant outside of California, in states that haven’t stopped the detainments.

“The federal government in some ways is catching up with what locals have already done,” said Jessica Karp Bansal, staff attorney for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a Los Angeles-based group representing dozens of organizations protecting rights of day laborers.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/e...mmunities.html

More than one way to get the job done.

But while ending the detainments, some agencies – including the sheriff’s departments in Orange and Los Angeles counties – adopted another procedure. Their local jails contact ICE before suspected unauthorized immigrants are released, so ICE agents can be on hand to detain them for deportation proceedings.

287(g) - Excellent program that was disolved by the Obama administration.
Secure Communities - Disolved by the Obama administration. Watered down version of 287(g).
Trust Act - Secure Communities disolved by the Obama administration. Watered down version of Secure Communities.

Looks like were seeing a very concerning trend here. Interior enforcement is vanishing before our eyes!

Latest version:

http://www.alipac.us/f12/priority-en...-first-317263/

Operation Cross Check:

http://www.alipac.us/f12/2-059-convi...2015-a-318097/

Operation "WHO CARES AS LONG AS THEY GO HOME":


http://www.alipac.us/f12/7-700-illeg...-court-318062/

"Operation KEEP 'EM MOVIN' TOWARD THE EXIT"

U.S. deports people eligible for immigration relief, lawyers say

Published March 10, 2015 EFE
By Paula Diaz

U.S. immigration authorities are detaining people considered of low priority or who qualify for the immigration relief announced by President Barack Obama, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, known as AILA.

"We have received reports from immigration lawyers in different parts of the country that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials are not implementing the memo (about the president's executive orders) or they do it inconsistently and at their discretion," the director of AILA Legal Services, Greg Chen, told Efe.

Obama announced on Nov. 20 the expansion of the 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which has protected from deportation more than 500,000 young people who entered the country as children, and a new initiative, Deferred Action for Parents of Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents.

However, last month federal Judge Andrew Hanen temporarily suspended Obama's measures, though the president recalled that this judicial ruling does not alter the priority of deporting the undocumented who have committed serious crimes.

But immigration attorneys report that following the Hanen decision, some ICE agents do not follow the orders they received from their superiors in Washington.

As a consequence, Chen said they have asked ICE authorities to instruct all their agents to be consistent in the application of the priorities laid down.

In a communique sent to Efe, ICE said that the priorities established in the memo of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, sent to immigration agencies on Nov. 20, remain in force.

According to figures provided by ICE, in fiscal year 2014, which ended last Sept. 30, some 315,943 individuals were deported, while from Oct. 1, 2014 until Jan. 31 of this year, 80,359 immigrants were repatriated.

Victor Nieblas, president-elect of AILA, cites confusion among the officials, some of whom believe that due to the judicial suspension, the memo is no longer valid.

"ICE says they are definitely following the memorandum of Nov. 20, that they have orders to follow those priorities. The president also indicated that there would be consequences for those officials who choose not to follow the memorandum, but there have always been immigration officials who do just as they please," Nieblas said.

Activistas point out that there is nothing in the memorandum that requires interpretation in order to prohibit or discourage the arrest, detention or deportation of undocumented immigrants.

"What is important in these cases is that people know their rights because otherwise they can be victims of deportation," the activist Dulce Matuz told Efe.

One such person is Consuelo Rodriguez, mother of four, three of them U.S. citizens, who after the Hanen decision again suffered the uncertainty and fear she has lived with since she arrived in the United States without papers 12 years ago.

"I feel the fear of being deported day after day, more here in Arizona where they catch you and send you to the border. I can't imagine being separated from my kids for one day," the Mexican immigrant told Efe. EFE

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...f-lawyers-say/

Originally Posted by MW

287(g) - Excellent program that was disolved by the Obama administration.
Secure Communities - Disolved by the Obama administration. Watered down version of 287(g).
Trust Act - Secure Communities disolved by the Obama administration. Watered down version of Secure Communities.

Looks like were seeing a very concerning trend here. Interior enforcement is vanishing before our eyes!

I just came across this. Date: Oct. 7, 2014

L.A. County supervisors vote to extend ICE deal in jails
A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy inside the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. (Patrick T. Fallon / Bloomberg)

By KATE LINTHICUM contact the reporter

L.A. County will extend a controversial partnership with federal immigration authorities in county jails
L.A. County supervisors vote to extend ICE presence in jails


The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a controversial partnership with federal immigration authorities designed to target potentially deportable immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes.

The board voted 3-0 to extend the contract after a tense hearing in which dozens of activists blamed the program for eroding trust in law enforcement among immigrant communities.


Supervisors to weigh county jails' collaboration with ICE agents

The program, known as 287(g), places federal immigration agents inside county jails and trains jail employees to investigate whether inmates convicted of certain crimes are in the country illegally. Inmates identified through the program are often turned over to federal authorities after they are released from jail.

Supervisors Gloria Molina, Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich voted to approve the agreement. Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas abstained.

Yaroslavsky said he wanted to see more data on the program, saying quarterly reports produced by the Sheriff's Department since 2010 have been "superficial."


He held up a one-page report sent to the board in August that he said included little more than the number of interviews conducted by ICE-trained jail employees (339 during a three-month period that ended July 31), and called for more detail about what crimes individuals identified through the program had been convicted of.

During Tuesday's hearing, advocates said a host of immigrants without serious criminal records have found themselves in deportation proceedings because of 287(g).


Garcetti aide is face of city's outreach to foreign-born residents

Blanca Perez, 34, told the board that she ended up in ICE custody after being arrested for illegally selling ice cream bars outside her son's school in Van Nuys. Perez, a Mexican immigrant who came to the country illegally, said she was transferred from a jail facility to an ICE detention center after an L.A. County sheriff's deputy questioned her about her immigration status.

"Please end this program," she told the supervisors. "It separates families."

Molina, who has been one of the staunchest supporters of 287(g), said her office would investigate the circumstances of Perez's case. She said serious criminals, not people like Perez, are the program's intended targets.

"We are not here picking up people who are selling lollipops," she said. "We are trying to find a way to make L.A. County safe."

Immigration officials said they could not provide immediate data on how many ICE detainees were identified through the county jail system or what types of crimes those individuals had been convicted of.

A 2010 Migration Policy Institute study of the county's implementation of the program found that of 2,874 federal requests to hold potentially deportable inmates that year, only about a fifth were issued against so-called Level One offenders, which include those convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping.

The rest were issued against people who had committed less serious offenses, including traffic violations, the study found.

Across the country, state and local governments have been reconsidering their relationship with federal immigration officials. The number of law enforcement jurisdictions participating in 287(g) has decreased from 75 to 35 in recent years, according to ICE officials. The only other jurisdiction in California to participate in the program is Orange County.

Several advocates had asked that lawmakers delay the vote until a new sheriff is elected and sworn in. Both candidates vying in the November election to replace interim Sheriff John Scott have voiced opposition to the program.

After the board voted to approve the contract, the board chambers erupted in jeers as immigrant advocates shouted "Molina deports!" in unison. Earlier in the meeting, about 60 advocates stood up and turned their backs to lawmakers for more than an hour in a silent protest.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-i...008-story.html

Blanca Perez, 34, told the board that she ended up in ICE custody after being arrested for illegally selling ice cream bars outside her son's school in Van Nuys. Perez, a Mexican immigrant who came to the country illegally, said she was transferred from a jail facility to an ICE detention center after an L.A. County sheriff's deputy questioned her about her immigration status.

"Please end this program," she told the supervisors. "It separates families."

Molina, who has been one of the staunchest supporters of 287(g), said her office would investigate the circumstances of Perez's case. She said serious criminals, not people like Perez, are the program's intended targets.

"We are not here picking up people who are selling lollipops," she said. "We are trying to find a way to make L.A. County safe."

Well, for your information, selling ice cream bars outside of a school has all types of problems with it, this is a milk-based product, a dairy product, that requires regulated temperatures to ensure the food is safe, it also requires certain sanitation and processing regulations to ensure the food is safe, this is why it's illegal to sell food on the streets without a license. This is the type of thing we don't want to see in the United States. Maybe you could do this in Mexico and have no problems, that's why you should pack up your son and return to Mexico, and also why ICE should have already deported you.

Ice cream is not a lollipop. And there's no reason to waste someone's time investigating why someone was arrested for selling food illegally. Any American would be arrested. Cops are arresting American Kids selling lemonade from little lemonade stands, not that I agree with that, but it is the law and it's the same types of laws that parents wanted to restrict the type of candy that's handed out during Halloween, it's why pill bottles are impossible to open, it's why plastic wrap that requires a machete or a strong pair of scissors encapsulates most packaged foods. No one scoffs at the law when it's an American being held accountable tor it, so it was wrong of the Supervisor to scoff at these same laws being applied to an illegal alien.

Illegal aliens believe they are above the law, and is one of the many reasons why they are not welcome in the United States, why they are forbidden by law to be here, and why they are not the people we need or want in our country, let alone being a significant part of the future of the United States, because no good or benefits have or will come from it. Everyone needs to keep in mind, that there is a reason they are here clamoring for handouts, jobs and special treatment, instead of in their own countries doing likewise.

After the board voted to approve the contract, the board chambers erupted in jeers as immigrant advocates shouted "Molina deports!" in unison. Earlier in the meeting, about 60 advocates stood up and turned their backs to lawmakers for more than an hour in a silent protest.

This made me laugh, as if that would offend anyone wanting to stop illegal immigration. After all, their backsides headed out of here is what we want to see.

The board voted 3-0 to extend the contract after a tense hearing in which dozens of activists blamed the program for eroding trust in law enforcement among immigrant communities.

There should be no "trust in law enforcement" for illegal aliens. We want them to fear law enforcement, not become their best friends. We want them to be arrested by law enforcement, processed by law enforcement and deported by law enforcement. Why would we abandon law enforcement procedures and programs that are in place to enforce the law to build trust with the people who are breaking the law? When has law enforcement ever wanted to abandon a practice to enforce the law against Americans in order to build "trust" with the American community"? This is the craziest damn thing I've ever heard. So, it's not "trust" law enforcement is trying to build with the "immigrant" community, it's bribes and drugs and confiscations they're trying to "build".

So voters, please be wary of those who want to build "trust in law enforcement among the immigrant community", because it sounds like, talks like, and walks like a law enforcement group that's not interested in enforcing our laws.