ICE program: Safer communities or deportation dragnet?

Fingerprinting expanding in Colorado

April 03, 2011 11:30 AM
LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

A federal program aimed at identifying illegal immigrants is in its infancy in Colorado, but critics charge it has racked up a troubling record in areas where it has operated for as long as 2 ½ years.

At issue is Secure Communities, a rapidly expanding initiative in which federal authorities check fingerprints collected by jails against an immigration database.

Government officials say the new fingerprint procedures — involving hundreds of detention facilities across the country, including El Paso County’s — are focused on getting “criminal aliensâ€