Fontana Police Department will continue to participate in Secure Communities program

Published: Saturday, December 15, 2012 8:00 AM PST

The Fontana Police Department will continue cooperating with the Secure Communities program, reporting people to federal authorities for an imminent deportation even if they have committed minor offenses, said Police Chief Rod Jones.

The decision came after State Attorney General Kamala Harris announced last Dec. 4 that compliance of local agencies with the federal program is optional.

According to authorities, has U.S. has deported more than 166,000 immigrants convicted of crimes in the United States through August of this year since Secure Communities' inception in 2008.

"Since it is our responsibility to protect and maintain public safety for this community, we will make every reasonable effort to comply with all such detainment requests," said Jones. "It must be remembered that only those individuals deemed to present the most significant threat(s) to public safety have an immigration detainer request issued for them."

According to Fontana P.D. policy, if a person has been detained/arrested by department personnel and it is determined that there is an immigration detainer, the officer has "discretion whether it will be served." If the individual is going to be booked at county jail, the decision of serving the immigration detainer "shall reside with the county jail," the policy states.

"If the person is to be cited-released from the station, the decision to serve the immigration detainer shall be that of the arresting officer. Consideration to serve should be based on the impact on existing staffing and the proposed response time of ICE officials," reads the policy.

Secure Communities uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that helps to identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local enforcement.

That means that when a person is fingerprinted by a law enforcement agency, the prints are submitted to the FBI, which eventually forwards the information to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If DHS determines that an individual is unlawfully present in the country, ICE may take enforcement action, issuing an immigration detainer.

"Realizing there are an estimated 10 million individuals in the United States who lack lawful status or are removable because of a criminal conviction, the issuance of an immigration detainer is prioritized based on individuals who present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by the severity of their crime, their criminal history and other factors," reads the FPD policy.

The program has been effective, supporters say; however, Harris thinks it "has not held up to what it aspires to be."

Harris and immigrant rights advocates argue the federal program has devastated thousands of families around the country deporting people with no prior convictions and even if their crimes are minor. In some instances, even victims of a crime have been negatively impacted by the system, Harris added.

"I want that rape victim to be absolutely secure that if she waves down an officer in a car that she will be protected ... and not fear that she's waving down an immigration officer," said Harris.

To put an end to certain deportations that are "unfair," Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco reintroduced last Dec. 3 the Transparency and Responsibility using State Tools Act, also known as the TRUST Act.

A similar version of this proposal was vetoed last September by Gov. Jerry Brown, who claimed the bill would "bar" local cooperation even when the person arrested had been convicted of serious offenses such as child abuse, drug and weapons trafficking, and gang-related crimes.

While the State Legislature analyzes the bill, local police will continue participating in the program, which according to authorities has resulted in the deportation of more than 61,000 immigrants who were convicted of aggravated felony offenses such as murder, rape, and sexual abuse. Of the 166,000 deported immigrants under the program, an estimated 82,500 came from California alone, including those convicted of minor offenses, opponents said.

http://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/articles/2012/12/15/news/doc50cc9c5db34cd730533976.txt