Thread: Imperial County, CA. jail checks immigration records

Imperial County jail checks immigration records

The Associated Press
3:47 p.m. September 10, 2009

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Law enforcement agencies in Imperial County can now check the immigration status of people they arrest when fingerprints are taken during booking.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that Imperial joins about 80 other counties nationwide in the program called Secure Communities. Los Angeles and San Diego are among them.

The program lets local law enforcement check fingerprints against a federal immigration system in addition to criminal records. ICE is notified if the fingerprints yield a match in the immigration system.

ICE plans to extend the program nationwide by the end of 2013.

Imperial County is in the California's southeast corner, bordering Mexico and Arizona. The county jail houses an average of about 600 people a day.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=163803

I.C.E. News Release

September 10, 2009

New ICE initiative uses biometrics to enhance identification and removal of dangerous criminal aliens from Imperial County

Now criminal and immigration records of all those arrested to be checked

EL CENTRO, Calif. - Law enforcement agencies in Imperial County will benefit from a new initiative developed by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) that modernizes the process used to accurately identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the community.

The initiative, Secure Communities, is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Secure Communities enables ICE to determine whether an individual arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien and take the appropriate action to remove that individual from the community.

The Secure Communities biometric identification technology is now accessible to the state and local law enforcement agencies in Imperial County that use electronic booking machines maintained by the Imperial County Jail. The program has already been implemented in approximately 79 counties, including Los Angeles and San Diego, with nationwide coverage expected by the end of 2013.

Formerly as part of the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were taken and checked for criminal history information against the DOJ biometric system maintained by the FBI. With the implementation of Secure Communities in Imperial County yesterday, the 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. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action after offenders complete their prison terms. Top priority is given to aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

"Secure Communities is a DHS initiative to more broadly manage and modernize the processes used to identify and ultimately remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities," said Acting Secure Communities Executive Director Marc Rapp. "Our goal with this effort is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our local law enforcement partners."

Secure Communities enhances the ongoing joint efforts by the Imperial County Sheriff's Office and ICE to identify criminal aliens in the Imperial County Jail system and process them for deportation. As a result of those efforts, more than 260 criminal aliens were turned over to ICE last year following their release from the custody of the sheriff's office.

Secure Communities bolsters the ongoing joint efforts by ICE and participating law enforcement agencies in the United States. Eventually, with DOJ and other DHS component collaboration, ICE plans to expand this capability to all state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.

Secure Communities is part of DHS's comprehensive plan to distribute technology that links local law enforcement agencies to both FBI and DHS biometric systems. DHS's US VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) holds biometrics-based immigration records, while the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains biometrics-based criminal records.

"US VISIT is proud to support ICE, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "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."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said the Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division Daniel D. Roberts. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

Secure Communities is a key facet of ICE's enforcement priority to identify, locate and remove criminal aliens, building on the success of the agency's Criminal Alien Program. In fiscal year 2008, ICE identified more than 221,000 potentially removable aliens incarcerated nationwide. This fiscal year, the agency anticipates spending more than $1 billion on such efforts, which in addition to Secure Communities, also includes expanding the agency's Criminal Alien Program and Fugitive Operations Program.

More information about ICE's Secure Communities effort is available at www.ice.gov.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

Last Modified: Thursday, September 10, 2009
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0909/090910elcentro.htm

Originally Posted by Heartless

Why are they waiting?

There are more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. It cost money, takes trained technicians and takes time to set up the system in each county. They are doing more counties every month.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by Heartless

Why are they waiting?

There are more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. It cost money, takes trained technicians and takes time to set up the system in each county. They are doing more counties every month.

Granted it takes time but shouldn't any of the States that have borders south and north be set and doing it already??? I certainly hope they have been if not that should be top priority..by the way how is that fence coming all of a sudden I never hear or read anything about it any more.

Kathyet

Originally Posted by kathyet

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by Heartless

Why are they waiting?

There are more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. It cost money, takes trained technicians and takes time to set up the system in each county. They are doing more counties every month.

Granted it takes time but shouldn't any of the States that have borders south and north be set and doing it already??? I certainly hope they have been if not that should be top priority..by the way how is that fence coming all of a sudden I never hear or read anything about it any more.

Kathyet

It is a FEDERAL system being installed by the federal government.

The state have no say in when or where it gets installed first.

They are installing it in counties with large illegal alien populations first. Many of those are near the southern border.

No fence is being installed since Obama is president.