Thread: ‘Secure Communities’ Effort Continues to Grow

‘Secure Communities’ Effort Continues to Grow

(Created: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:50 AM EST)

The ranks of localities across the U.S. now operating under the “Secure Communitiesâ€

State is now part of immigrant fingerprinting program
By Georgia Pabst
Jan. 18, 2011 |(12) Comments

All 72 counties in Wisconsin are now participating in the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement's Secure Communities strategy, a federal information-sharing system that uses biometrics, or fingerprints, to identify legal and illegal immigrants booked on criminal charges, federal officials have announced.

There are now 969 jurisdictions in 37 states participating in the program. ICE anticipates that by 2013 the program will be nationwide, so that all fingerprint matches can be shared, according to plans for the Secure Communities program.

Wisconsin, under an agreement with ICE, joined the program this week, state and federal officials said.

Fingerprints taken of individuals charged with crimes and booked into custody had been checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, said Gail Montenegro, an ICE spokeswoman in Chicago.

But through this new "enhanced information sharing" between the state Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, fingerprints submitted by the state to the FBI will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records and immigration biometrics, she said.

The program here and elsewhere has proved controversial. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, an agency that advocates for low-income workers, said the program "casts too wide a net, abusing due process rights so that someone who is innocent of a charge will still end up in deportation proceedings."

She said there is concern that the program will encourage racial profiling among law enforcement and undermine the public's trust by creating new fears of immigrant victims and witnesses to report crimes.

Law enforcement officials dispute that.

"Right now immigration is a very passionate and emotional issue, and that's replaced reason and logic when it comes to the enforcement of immigration policy," Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said.

"We don't enforce immigration at the local level. It's a federal issue. But as sheriff we do have a role in sharing information with any legitimate law enforcement agency for lawful purposes."

Brown County Sheriff John Gossage said: "Enhanced information sharing and increased communications with ICE will greatly aid in our effort to identify, apprehend and reduce the number of criminal illegal aliens in Brown County."


http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/113506344.html