Thread: Immigration rights groups urge FBI advisory board to end Secure Communities

Immigration rights groups urge FBI advisory board to end Secure Communities

Fri, 2012-03-09 07:54 AM
By: Mark Rockwell

In light of Justice Department investigations of civil rights violations at some local police departments in the last few months, a coalition of immigration rights groups asked an FBI policy advisory board to eliminate the controversial Secure Communities biometric identification program.

The March 8 letter was sent by groups including the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON), Muslim Legal Fund of America, and over 75 other groups to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

The groups said the FBI’s APB Working Groups meetings coming up in August as should consider the Arizona and Connecticut investigations in deciding how to proceed with the program.

NDLON along with other civil rights groups and a number of localities and states have been calling for the repeal or reform of Secure Communities program saying it damages public safety, community policing and unfairly targets non-criminal aliens.

The letter again stated those same concerns, emphasizing that some state and local governments have chosen not to participate in the program and that repealing the program “would prevent the implementation of the program in jurisdictions with a documented pattern of civil rights abuses.” The remark referred to Department of Justice investigations of civil rights violations at Maricopa County jail in Arizona and in East Haven, Connecticut in the past few months that it said uncovered blatant violations of Hispanic residents and inmates.

“The DOJ's recent findings of discriminatory policing in places like Maricopa, AZ and East Haven, CT make it even more important for the FBI to limit its involvement in S-Comm,” said Sonia Lin, Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Cardozo Law School Immigration Justice Clinic.

The groups noted Secure Communities has been sharply criticized by the governors and state legislators of Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts; local officials from numerous cities and counties, including the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Immigration rights groups urge FBI advisory board to end Secure Communities | Government Security News

"NDLON along with other civil rights groups and a number of localities and states have been calling for the repeal or reform of Secure Communities program saying it damages public safety, community policing and unfairly targets non-criminal aliens."

Damages public safety? LOL Are you serious? These illegals are thieves, steal identities, use fraudulent documents, reap benefits through deciet, crossed the border or over stayed visas etc. Some don't commit serious crimes right away, but they still commit them. Unfairly targets non-criminal aliens? There is no such thing. Once again, the illegals have people behind them trying to make them look like innocent victoms. Like what are we stupid? These illegals are not in any sense innocent or victoms.