Thread: Secure Communities Deports Noncriminals

Secure Communities Deports Noncriminals

Support Cools for Statewide ICE Program

Thursday, April 28, 2011
by Chris Meagher (Contact)

The Trust Act, if passed, would allow California jurisdictions to opt out of the controversial Secure Communities program aimed at getting serious illegal-alien criminals off the street. It cleared the Assembly Committee on Public Safety this Tuesday.

Just months after officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the strategy had been implemented in all 58 California counties, the program — in which local law officials share fingerprint information with ICE and other agencies — has come under fire once again for deporting noncriminals or minor offenders. Santa Barbara County has one of the highest deportation rates of noncriminals at 58 percent, based on data beginning January 2010 — when Secure Communities was enacted — through July 2010.

According to ICE, nearly 48,000 convicted criminal aliens have been identified in California as a result of the program, and nearly 24,000 deported. Of those, however, only 10,000 were serious or violent offenders.

And that’s the rub. Some politicians have come forward, saying that when they voted for Secure Communities they were led to believe the worst of the worst were going to be flagged. The program was implemented with a congressional mandate to pursue “high threatâ€

RELATED

Gov. Jerry Brown is a supporter of Secure Communities,
and as state attorney general ratified the agreement with the federal government.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1190243.html#1190243