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Congressional Documents and Publications
January 17, 2012
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DOCUMENTS

Local Law Enforcement to have Access to Digital Fingerprints of All Criminal Illegal Aliens
Washington, D.C. (January 17, 2012) - Rep. Frank Wolf (VA-10) today announced that funding to digitize the fingerprints of all criminal illegal aliens is included in the FY 2012 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Wolf called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to improve its Secure Communities database after a criminal illegal alien who was arrested in Loudoun County in November 2010 for public drunkenness but released when his fingerprints were not identified by the system. Four weeks later, Salvador Portillo-Saravia, an MS-13 gang member, sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl in Fairfax County. Portillo-Saravia pled guilty last October to two felonies: rape of a victim under 13, and sodomy of a victim under 13. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February.

This tragic incident identified a critical shortcoming in the Secure Communities program: immigration fingerprints taken on paper prior to 2005 were often not included in the database. Unfortunately, many local law enforcement agencies were unaware of this gap in the system and that manual searches were still necessary.

In June 2011, the House Appropriations Committee acted on Wolf's request to address the issue, agreeing to provide the necessary funding to update the database. The Senate agreed to the House's position during conference House-Senate negotiations in the fall 2011 and the spending bill was signed into law in December 2011.
"The Secure Communities database is an important resource for state and local law enforcement," Wolf said. "I will continue to work to ensure this system is operating as it was intended to help protect our communities."

Below is the report language included in the FY 2012 bill:

Improving Immigration Enforcement Activities

A total of $12,000,000 above the request is provided to improve immigration enforcement activities, of which $5,000,000 is included in Secure Communities for digitization of paper fingerprint cards from legacy immigration files. Both the House and Senate reports outlined areas for focus, such as: developing a comprehensive strategy to address the visa overstay problem, modernizing the Alien Criminal Response Information Management System (ACRIMe) to support the identification of criminal aliens and individuals attempting to overstay a visa, enhancing ICE capabilities for law enforcement support for immigration-related inquiries from State and local law enforcement, and digitizing old fingerprint records. ICE is directed to brief the Committees, with US-VISIT and other DHS components as appropriate, on its plan for utilization of these funds, no later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act. ICE is also directed, in conjunction with US-VISIT and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), to report to the Committees no later than 120 days e ate of enactment of this Act on the methodology of prioritizing files for the digitization effort as well as the overall projected cost of the project to ensure electronic availability of appropriate biometrics in IDENT.

Digitization Efforts
USCIS, ICE, and the Executive Office of Immigration Review are directed to brief the Committees on use of digitized records, as required in the House report, no later than March I, 2012. USCIS is also directed to provide no less than $29,000,000 to continue conversion of immigration records to digital format.

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