New Counties Share Fingerprint Info With Immigration Authorities

WSBTV
January 26, 2011
ATLANTA, GA

Federal immigration authorities have started sharing biometric information with authorities in three new Georgia counties to help identify criminal immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, announced Tuesday that it began sharing the information with Henry, Rockdale and Spalding counties last week.

ICE said it is part of an initiative called Secure Communities that is already in effect in 10 counties: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Muscogee and Whitfield.

The program allows arrestee fingerprint information to be checked against FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records kept by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously, fingerprints were just checked against the Department of Justice biometric system kept by the FBI.

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