Thread: Los Angeles: Controversial immigration enforcement program i

Controversial immigration enforcement program is target of lively protest

August 15, 2011


Hundreds gathered in Los Angeles on Monday night for a chance to address a federal task force that will propose changes to a controversial immigration enforcement program.

Speaker after speaker at the lively meeting denounced the Secure Communities program, with most not calling for changes but for the program to end entirely.

“I’m here asking the government to end this Secure Communities program,â€

Published: Aug. 15, 2011 Updated: 8:20 p.m.

Activists rally against controversial immigration program



BY CINDY CARCAMO / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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LOS ANGELES A coalition of about a dozen immigrant rights groups, a rabbi and at least two Catholic priests called Monday for the dismantling of a controversial federal immigration program, chanting "No more lies" in front of the Our Lady of Angels Church in Los Angeles.

The morning protest – with activists wearing T-shirts and holding posters emblazoned with the words "Who would Jesus deport?" and "I am undocumented" – came just hours before a 6 p.m. advisory task force public hearing on Secure Communities. The national program – launched in March of last year in Orange County – shares fingerprint information of those arrested in local custody with immigration officials.

The program has led to an unprecedented number of deportations. In fiscal year 2010, immigration officials removed more than 392,000 people from the United States, according to ICE statistics. About 95,000 had criminal convictions.

Secure Communities has led to a national outcry from immigrant activists and some law enforcement officials who say the vast majority of people targeted under the program were arrested for offenses as minor as selling street food without a permit. Advocates also say in practice it is also targeting anyone booked into police custody, including crime victims and non-criminals, for transfer to immigration authorities.

"This is a bad program for the nation and horrible program for California," Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said at the morning rally.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said they have launched a variety of measures and enahncements, such as a new training program for law enforcment agents and to address concerns.

"These measures will help guarantee that Secure Communities is operated in a manner that is fully consistent with all applicable civil rights and civil liberties laws and policies," Kice said.

Immigration officials formed the task force – comprised of law enforcement officials, advocates and scholars – to make recommendations on how to best focus on individuals who pose a true public safety or national security threat, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Monday's meeting will be the only one on the West Coast.

Some of those who faced deportation told their stories at the rally and press conference at Our Lady of the Angels Church.

Marked with bruises and desperate, Isaura Garcia said she called 911 for help against her abusive boyfriend. The 20-year-old Los Angeles mother of a toddler said it changed her life – but not for the better.

She said she thought police would come to her rescue on that February day. Instead they incarcerated her and referred her to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on suspicion of being in the country illegally, she said.

"I would never have called if I had known that I would face deportation as a result," she told the crowd at the rally.

A coalition of about a dozen immigrant and community rights group also introduced a couple of ice cream vendors who were arrested on suspicion of not having the proper permits for the sale of food and then were caught in the program's dragnet.

Activists say Garcia's story is not unusual. They say crime victims and those who commit minor offenses have faced deportation or been deported because of the program, which immigration officials said is intended to identify and deport people who are in the country illegally and suspected of or convicted of serious crimes.

Garcia said her English was limited at the time and that officers didn't understand her and instead arrested her on suspicion of domestic violence. The charges against her were eventually dropped and the deportation order was stayed by immigration officials when the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California became involved, she said. Garcia is now in the process of applying for a visa.

"I'm telling my story now because I don't want what happened to me to happen to other women, other victims of domestic violence or other crime victims that need thee protection of the police," she said. "... If the government continues with this program, the community will avoid the police. When the whole community is afraid of the police, more crimes go unreported and more victims are unprotected."

Some government officials, from Illinois to Massachusetts, have resisted becoming part of the Secure Communities program. In response, immigration officials announced that they would cancel all agreements that 40 states and cities had signed to start the program because they said it was not legally required any way, according to news reports.

"Once a state or local law enforcement agency submits fingerprint data to the federal government, no agreement with the state is legally necessary for one part of the federal government to share it with another part," Kice said in a written statement.

The program relies on an already-existing federal information-sharing program, which consists of the sharing of biometric data between two federal law enforcement agencies-Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, Kice said.

The task force is tasked with preparing a report with recommendations on how ICE can adjust the program to mitigate potential impacts on community policing practices, including how to implement policies related to the detention and removal of people charged with, but not convicted of, minor traffic offenses who have no other criminal history or egregious immigration violations.

Some anti-illegal immigration activists, however, say that anyone who is the country illegally should be subject to removal. But some law enforcement officials critical of the program say it's affected their ability to do community policing by alienating victims afraid of speaking out because of their legal status.

The coalition plans to attend the task force hearing at St. Anne's Residential facility, 155 N. Occidental Blvd. in Los Angeles.

www.ocregister.com

The program, which was touted as a way to identify and deport convicted felons, has been criticized for also ensnaring minor offenders, victims of domestic abuse and other crimes, as well as witnesses to crimes and people who were arrested but not convicted of offenses.

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I note that this 'program' is being vigorously rejected by the Roman Catholic Church - plagued by hundreds and hundreds of documented child molestation incidents and lawsuits perpetrated by Roman Catholic priests throughout the nation.

They should be embracing ANYTHING that would protect their families and children from the predators.

They are deceived, and want us to be also.

Isaura Garcia, at podium, cries in Los Angeles Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, as she recounts her arrest under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secure Communities Program, which was created in 2008 and calls for police to submit suspects' fingerprints to DHS so they can be cross-checked with federal deportation orders. Garcia is a domestic violence victim who, after reporting an incident of brutal abuse, was arrested by Los Angeles police and then arrested by immigration authorities.

The Roman Catholic Church has a very long history of inciting resistance to United States laws, specifically United States Immigration Laws.

They have been getting away with this for decades.

Los Angeles Special Order 40 could never have been allowed or perpetrated if not for the Roman Catholic Church.

Los Angeles RCC Cardinal Mahoney is now retired, but while he was an active Cardinal he repeatedly inspired millions of illegal aliens to STEAL their way into the United States and PROTECTED them under the shadow of the RCC when they got here.

Just a few things NEVER MENTIONED at any of these human rights rallies ..

Cardinal Mahoney has said point blank that his followers should disregard laws on immigration as a matter of Catholic conscience.

This is the same Cardinal who fought all the way to the Supreme Court to keep secret all documents related to pedophilia among priests.

But the Cardinal and other Catholic leaders are quick to embrace the laws of bankruptcy protection in order to not compensate victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and keep them out of the U.S. judicial system. So far, five such dioceses have done just that.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/06/dobbs. ... index.html

Added to the Homepage
http://www.alipac.us/article-6497--0-0.html

Organized religion has injected itself into the mainstream controversy of illegal immigration by their stances of protecting illegal aliens from the perspective of religion.

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Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law
http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-246872-0-da ... c-sex.html

They coordinated these demonstrations in many cites on the same day.

Georgia Rally protests ICE fingerprint program

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-247131.html

RELATED

Across the U.S., immigrant advocates demand Obama terminate Secure Communities

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-247132.html

LA needs more immigration enforcement.

I really don't care what illegal aliens want. They sure as heck aren't going to march around and tell our government what to do. Buzz Off!

Dixie