New Call in Albany to Quit U.S. Immigration Program

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: May 9, 2011

A group of 38 state lawmakers sent a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday urging him to remove New York from a national program that has been a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

The letter comes about two months after another group of elected officials in the state, including 19 New York City Council members, sent a similar letter to Mr. Cuomo — part of a growing national chorus of hostility to the enforcement initiative, which has begun in most states and in some New York counties.

Under the program, called Secure Communities, the fingerprints of everyone booked into a local or county jail are automatically sent to the Department of Homeland Security and compared with prints in the agency’s databases. If officials discover that a suspect is in the country illegally, or is a noncitizen immigrant with a criminal record, they may seek to deport the person.

Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois said he was pulling his state out of the program; it was the first time a state had sought to withdraw entirely. Mr. Quinn and other opponents complain that Secure Communities has strayed from its stated goal of ensnaring convicted criminals, particularly those found guilty of the most serious offenses, and that it is instead sweeping up many immigrants charged with low-level crimes or guilty only of being in the country illegally.

In their letter, the New York legislators applauded Mr. Quinn’s action, adding, “Given New York’s immigrant heritage and our leadership role in the nation, we firmly believe that our state, too, must immediately end this destructive program.â€