Thread: ICE expands biometrics program,removing 'dangerous aliens'

ICE expands biometrics program aimed at removing 'dangerous aliens'
by Brett Wolf
Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Local law enforcement getting up to speed on deploying biometrics databases.
US Immigration and Customs enforcement is expanding a high-tech program aimed at identifying "dangerous criminal aliens" following arrests made by local law enforcers. The so-called Secure Communities initiative enables ICE to determine whether a person arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien and "take the appropriate action to remove the individual from the community", according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Law enforcement agencies in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in California began participating in the program in December. They are able to take part because they use electronic booking machines that collect biometric information, namely fingerprints, that can be easily forwarded to both the Department of Justice and ICE.

It would appear that this cutting edge technology has even participants scrambling to come up to speed. Drew Sugars, the spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, told Homeland Security Today that county authorities are only now familiarizing themselves with the Secure Communities program to determine how they can best utilize it to protect their communities from dangerous individuals.

"Formerly as part of the booking process, local arrestees' fingerprints were taken and checked for criminal history information against the DOJ biometric system maintained by the FBI," DHS stated when announcing the expansion of the program. "With the implementation of Secure Communities, that fingerprint information will now be simultaneously checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by the DHS."

If any fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE, enabling the agency to take appropriate action to ensure dangerous criminal aliens are not released back into communities. Top priority is given to individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery, and kidnapping.

"Enhancing public safety is at the core of ICE's mission," said Acting Secure Communities Executive Director Marc Rapp. "Our goal with Secure Communities is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our law enforcement partners."

With the expansion of Secure Communities to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, there are now six California counties participating in the initiative, including Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego and Imperial. Across the country, Secure Communities is being used by 108 jurisdictions in 15 states. ICE hopes that by next year, Secure Communities will have a presence in every state, with nationwide coverage anticipated by 2013.

According to ICE, since its inception in October 2008, Secure Communities has identified more than 11,000 aliens charged with or convicted of so-called "Level 1" crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping – 1,900 of whom have already been removed from the United States. It has also reportedly identified more than 100,000 aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes.

"By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation," said US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny.

http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11826/152/

We want illegals ALL OUT!

This is really a testament to what they are not doing.

The DHS propaganda machine spins out more security numbers.

..arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien

Secure Communities is being used by 108 jurisdictions in 15 states.

According to ICE, since its inception in October 2008, Secure Communities has identified more than 11,000 aliens charged with or convicted of so-called "Level 1" crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping – 1,900 of whom have already been removed from the United States. It has also reportedly identified more than 100,000 aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes.

Identification is nothing without punishment and deportation. They are not deporting Level 2&3. An average of 2 locations per state! That's not very many.

Dixie