Thread: MA: MIRA Advocate displays ignorance of Hispanic culture

Two Massachusetts Sherriffs display ignorance of their own jails.


Today, the Boston Herald published an article highlighting the efforts of two MA Sheriffs – Thomas Hodgson of Bristol and Joseph McDonald of Plymouth – who are trying to join the federal Secure Communities (SComm) program. Under Secure Communities, all people who are arrested would have their fingerprints run through the federal IDENT database which contains nearly 100 million records of people who have had previous contact with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Customs and Border Protection. Apparently, these sheriffs are ignorant of what’s already happening in the jails they are supposed to be running.

The Massachusetts Department of Corrections already has a 287(g) agreement with the federal government (so named because the program is authorized under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act). Under this agreement, people who are serving time in Massachusetts prisons have their fingerprints run against the IDENT database. In other words, what these two sheriffs are trying to do – and what they are criticizing the governor for not doing – IS ALREADY BEING DONE. It would be nice if the people who are responsible for our jails actually knew what was going on inside them, wouldn’t it?

It would also be nice if the Herald got its own facts rights. Two sheriffs who are clueless about what’s happening in their jails are not “tough-on-crimeâ€

If the advocate writing this piece had any knowledge of names as used in Ecuador he would not have referred to the drunken driver Luis Guaman Cela as Mr. Cela. Cela is his mothers maiden name his father and his is Guaman. Sarang Sekhavat should know better.