Thread: Opposition to 'Secure Communities' Dropped

Opposition to 'Secure Communities' Dropped

County Council passes amended resolution calling for 'consistent' application of federal deportation program.

By Sebastian Montes | 11:29am

The Montgomery County Council will not oppose the "Secure Communities" deportation program, but will put it under greater scrutiny ahead of its September launch date.

Councilwoman Nancy Navarro introduced a resolution last week calling on the council to oppose Secure Communities. With the resolution set for the council’s vote today, Navarro (D) of Silver Spring rewrote the resolution to call for county officials to "ensure" the program’s "consistent" application.

The amended resolution passed unanimously.

"We do value public safety in Montgomery County; I think that has been front and center in our discussions," Navarro said. "But we also felt that it was important that we make sure that … our law enforcement officials are able to continue to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to ensure the appropriate and even implementation of this program."

Immigrant advocates mounted their campaign against Secure Communities after seeing the experience of other jurisdictions where it has already been implemented—particularly Prince George’s County, which has seen two-thirds of people identified via Secure Communities deported without committing a criminal offense.

"I wanted to remind everybody that we are not able to stop this program; it’s not a volunteer participation program … and by 2013, it will be nationwide," Navarro said. "So what we’re doing here is basically acknowledging that our public officials, our law enforcement officials are going to work closely with ICE to ensure the even implementation of this program when it comes to Montgomery County. The lines of communication will be really important, given the fact that in other jurisdictions it has created mistrust, which has led to insecure communities and it has also created some racial profiling."

http://rockville.patch.com/articles/opp ... es-dropped

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Federal immigration enforcement program’s launch is set for Montgomery


By Michael Laris and Shankar Vedantam, Tuesday, May , 10:42 PM

Montgomery officials are getting a civics lesson in the power of the federal government: A controversial federal immigration enforcement program will launch in the county this fall, whether local officials like it or not.

In a terse letter, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told Montgomery’s corrections director that the program, called Secure Communities, is coming soon. As part of the program, fingerprint data from local law enforcement are sent to federal immigration officials.

“This letter is to notify you that the activation date for Montgomery County is scheduled for Tuesday, September 27, 2011,â€