AMY GOODMAN: We begin today with a look at immigration enforcement under the Obama administration. Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the expansion of the controversial 287(g) program to eleven new locations across the country. This program allows local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It effectively gives local police the powers of federal immigration agents.

287(g) agreements have been widely criticized for increasing racial profiling and singling out immigrants for arrest without suspicion of crime. In Napolitano’s home state of Arizona, particularly under Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the 287(g) program is plagued with serious reports of abuse.

The Obama administration has also decided to expand and strengthen implementation of other controversial programs like E-Verify and Secure Communities. E-Verify is an electronic system that checks people’s eligibility to work, and Secure Communities brings ICE agents into local jails to identify and deport undocumented prisoners.

Well, here in New York, a coalition of immigration activists are gathering outside the Council on Foreign Relations today at the time of this broadcast, where Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is giving a speech about terrorism. The activists are protesting Napolitano’s expansion of immigration enforcement programs and calling for an end to abuses by ICE.

For more on this, we’re joined by two guests in the firehouse studio.

Aarti Shahani is the lead author of “Local Democracy on ICE,â€