Thread: How Secure is 'Secure Communties'?

How Secure is 'Secure Communities'?
By Lisa Riordan Seville and Hannah Rappleye

Sunday, December 5th, 2010 10:12 pm

An immigration program meant to catch the most dangerous criminals has raised questions about the priorities of immigration enforcement.

In mid-November, the New York City Council convened a hearing to discuss immigration policy in its city jails. The meeting ran more than five hours and mixed statistics, testimony and outrage as the audience tried to determine what implementing an immigration program called Secure Communities would mean for the city.

But New York, like many other jurisdictions around the country, found itself with more questions than answers.

Launched in 2008, Secure Communities is a Department of Homeland Security program that identifies deportable immigrants in U.S. jails. Under the program, an arrestee’s fingerprints are checked against federal criminal and immigration databases, giving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) technological access to local prisons and jails.

ICE and local law enforcement are notified immediately of the arrestee’s immigration status. ICE can then issue a detainer against the arrested individual–meaning the person can be held until ICE decides whether to initiate deportation proceedings against them.

Secure Communities has been activated in 788 jurisdictions in 34 states. The agency plans to implement the program in every state and local jail by 2013.

According to ICE’s Fiscal Year 2010 Fact Sheet, Secure Communities targets and assists “all local communities in the removal of those criminal aliens representing the greatest threat to community safety.â€

New York state has 0 of it's 62 communities enrolled in the I.C.E. Secure Community Program.

The following states have more than 65% of their jurisdictions enrolled in the I.C.E. Secure Community Program.

All other states do NOT.

AZ. 15 of 15 - 100%

CA. 38 of 58 - 66%

DE. 3 of 3 - 100%

D.C. 1 of 1 - 100%

FL. - 67 of 67 - 100%

HI. - 3 of 4 - 75%

N.C. - 68 of 100 - 68%

TX. 260 of 260 - 100%

VA. 129 of 129 - 100%

W.V. 54 of 54 - 100%

www.ice.gov/
11/23/2010