Study Questions Deportation of Rikers Inmates

By SAM DOLNICK
Published: November 10, 2010

As the Obama administration steps up efforts to deport immigrants held on criminal charges, federal officials in New York City have long been on the job. At the city’s main jail on Rikers Island, immigration officers comb through lists of foreign-born inmates, then question, detain and deport about 3,200 of them a year.

Immigration authorities say they decide whom to flag by considering the severity of the crime, the inmate’s criminal history and his immigration record. Their top priority, they say, is removing the most dangerous offenders.

But a new analysis of Rikers Island statistics by Justice Strategies, a prisoner advocacy group based in New York, shows that among inmates held on drug charges, those charged with misdemeanors were chosen for deportation proceedings more often than those charged with felonies. Suspects charged with lower-level felonies were selected more often than those charged with more serious crimes. And, the report says, inmates were flagged for possible deportation in patterns that mirrored simple jailhouse demographics.

The study, which was released on Wednesday, comes as debate swirls around Secure Communities, a new federal program that will require local law enforcement officers to send fingerprints of everyone booked into jail to the Department of Homeland Security, which will compare them with prints in its databases. If officials find that the suspect is in the country illegally, or is a noncitizen with a criminal record, they may try to deport him.

Federal officials say the program will protect the public and streamline enforcement efforts. But critics protest that it will sweep up immigrants who have not been convicted or even charged with serious crimes, and will discourage immigrants to go to the police as victims or witnesses, for fear of deportation.

The city’s relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement came under scrutiny on Wednesday at a joint hearing of two City Council committees. Several members voiced concern about the Rikers Island program, which has been in place for more than a decade.

Advocates for immigrants point to the new study as evidence that federal authorities sometimes show little discretion in whom they choose to deport. “These numbers suggest that there’s not a system in place to identify people based on risk, and ICE is simply tagging people who show up,â€