Thread: Deportation record has states reconsidering Secure Communiti

Deportation record has states reconsidering Secure Communities

June 20, 2011

By Daniel C. Vock, Stateline Staff Writer

Last month, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn pulled his state out of a federal program that uses fingerprints to catch illegal immigrants in jail. Quinn complained that the program was snagging too many people with only minor convictions or no criminal record at all. But federal records show that, in nearly every other state where the program known as Secure Communities is used, the situation Quinn pointed out is even more pronounced.

Two out of every 10 people deported from Illinois through Secure Communities had no previous criminal record. Nationally, the initiative has led to the deportations of nearly 109,000 people from 42 states since 2008. Overall, three out of 10 of those people had no prior convictions. In a dozen states with 30 or more deportations, more than half of those removed had clean records.

The governors of New York and Massachusetts recently joined Illinois in ending participation in Secure Communities on the grounds that very few of the people being deported have been convicted of serious criminal offenses. The issue is now heating up in California and Colorado, too.

The uproar over Secure Communities is part of the larger debate about how far states should go in cracking down on immigrants who are in the country illegally. Like the controversial immigration law passed by Arizona last year, it raises the question of how deeply local police departments should be involved in enforcing federal immigration laws.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for Secure Communities, has rapidly rolled out the program since its introduction less than three years ago. The approach is supposed to be a simple and efficient way to target illegal immigrants who have run afoul of the law. Participating police agencies send the fingerprints of all of their arrestees to ICE, which then checks those records for prior immigration violations. The goal, according to documents ICE has signed with participating agencies, is to “identify, detain and remove from the United States aliens who have been convicted of serious criminal offenses.â€

Illegal aliens ARE serious criminals! They are THIEVES who fraudulently obtain Welfare benefits, falsify identities, STEAL jobs from legitimate United States citizens, and ROB our children of quality education! ( mod edit)

Originally Posted by FreeRideIsOver

Illegal aliens ARE serious criminals! They are THIEVES who fraudulently obtain Welfare benefits, falsify identities, STEAL jobs from legitimate United States citizens, and ROB our children of quality education! ( mod edit)

It infuriates me that these idiots "soft shoe" that fact that someone is ONLY an illegal alien with no criminal record. Would one of us get off the hook if we ONLY committed document fraud or if we ONLY robbed one store???!! No!! The message they are sending is that these people are here ONLY to make a better life for themselves, they are here ONLY because of lack of opportunity in their own country, they illegally crossed the border ONLY because they were afraid of the drug cartels, etc. etc. etc. I AM SICK OF THE EXCUSES AND SICK OF THE B.S. "get out of jail free" cards that our scumbag politicians give to illegal invaders!!!