Marlborough officials giving up on Secure Communities bid.

By Kendall Hatch/Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 26, 2011 @ 12:14 AM

MARLBOROUGH — City officials are giving up for now on their effort to implement a program that they say would target dangerous and violent illegal immigrants if they are arrested in the city.

City Councilor Matt Elder, who had crafted an order that sought to have the Police Department join the federal Secure Communities program, said he learned from U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's office late last week that the measure could not be implemented by individual towns and cities.

Gov. Deval Patrick last month refused to sign a memorandum of understanding for the state to enroll in the program, which sends fingerprints from local arrestees to be cross-referenced with Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases. The aim is to root out illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.

Supporters say the program is a valuable tool to remove dangerous criminals who are in the country illegally. Critics say the program could encourage racial profiling and could isolate immigrants or make them afraid to report crimes to the police.

Elder, who spoke on the subject at a tea party lobbying event at the State House earlier this month, said officials had been getting mixed messages on whether towns and cities could opt in to the program.

He said he had initially heard that communities could enact the program, but was met with conflicting information from Police Chief Mark Leonard, who said officials at ICE told him that towns and cities could not opt in without state approval.

Elder said he sought out help from Brown's office, which Elder said gave definitive word that individual communities cannot implement the program because the state has control over what information individual police departments can send to certain federal agencies.

"Ultimately, it doesn't look like it is really going to happen," Elder said yesterday. "We have to go through the state to get our information to the federal government."

Elder said he hopes that state officials may take some action that would allow Marlborough to enact Secure Communities.

"I guess it's up to the Legislature and governor to decide if they want to change that," he said.

Fellow City Councilor Steven Levy, who is also a state representative, has spoken out in favor of Secure Communities, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Mayor Nancy Stevens declined to speak on the merits of the program yesterday, saying she hadn't discussed the proposal because it hadn't been available to Marlborough to implement.

City Council President Arthur Vigeant said he supported Elder's proposal to bring Secure Communities to Marlborough and the council will take it up again if the program is a possibility in the future. Federal officials have said the program will be pushed nationwide by 2013.

(Kendall Hatch can be reached at 508-490-7453 or khatch@wickedlocal.com.)

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