Rep. Robert Aderholt says delay on federal immigration program in Alabama is due to p
Rep. Robert Aderholt says delay on federal immigration program in Alabama is due to politics
By Mary Orndorff -- The Birmingham News
Updated: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 6:12 AM
http://media.al.com/sweethome/photo/8786727-small.jpg
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt
WASHINGTON -- An Alabama congressman said Tuesday that an apparent delay in extending a federal illegal immigration program statewide is a politically driven response to the state's controversial immigration crackdown.
Secure Communities, which uses local law enforcement to help identify illegal immigrants with criminal records, is working in 37 Alabama counties, missing a deadline that it be in all 67 by the end of 2011.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency program allows county jailers to share the fingerprints of people booked into jail with federal immigration enforcement officials. If the federal agencies find a match of someone without legal status and with a history of crime, especially violence, they'll be targeted for deportation.
The county-by-county deployment of the program, which involves the ability to electronically transmit fingerprints, began last year in Alabama.
But Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said Department of Homeland Security officials told him in a Jan. 5 email that it would not go statewide because of the controversy over Alabama's immigration law, which the federal government is challenging in court.
"The decision to delay deployment in Alabama, a state that enacted its own immigration enforcement law due to concerns about the federal government's failure to enforce the law, is incomprehensible and gives additional evidence to those very concerns," Aderholt wrote in a Tuesday letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Between April and July, 37 counties in Alabama activated their Secure Communities programs. Since July 12, no more counties have been added, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Alabama program has resulted in 119 criminally convicted illegal immigrants being removed from the U.S. Some of the counties already participating are Jefferson, Shelby and Mobile counties, according to ICE.
But a spokeswoman for ICE on Tuesday did not give a reason for the delay and said the agency still was working toward bringing Alabama counties online.
"ICE continues to work with its law enforcement partners in Alabama and across the country to responsibly and effectively implement this federal information sharing capability and plans to reach complete nationwide activation by the end of 2013," said Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for ICE.
Aderholt, who has monitored Secure Communities as chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that sets the budget for DHS, inquired about the delay in Alabama, and his staff received an email that specifically mentioned Alabama's immigration law.
Part of the email was provided by Aderholt's office and reads, "While these provisions of Alabama's state immigration enforcement law, which conflict with ICE's immigration enforcement policies and programs, remain the subject of litigation, ICE does not believe it is appropriate to expand deployment of Secure Communities .¤.¤. in Alabama."
The U.S. Department of Justice is leading a court challenge of Alabama's immigration law as an intrusion on the federal government's role to set and enforce federal immigration policy. Napolitano has told Congress that her agency will not cooperate in the enforcement of Alabama's law, which requires local police and sheriffs to identify illegal immigrants and report them to ICE, regardless of their criminal history. DHS policy under President Barack Obama is to prioritize deportations, focusing first on those who have broken other laws.
Spencer Collier, director of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, said he was assured two weeks ago by the DHS assistant secretary for the office of governmental affairs, Betty Markey, that the delay in Alabama was strictly for budget reasons.
"She assured me that all 67 counties would be brought up to speed, but that it was taking longer and they were not going to make the December deadline," Collier said. "She didn't say anything about the immigration law .¤.¤. and I have not heard from any of the sheriffs that they were slowing the process down."
The sheriff's office in Etowah County already had the digital fingerprint scanner in place and has been participating in Secure Communities since April. Sending the data to ICE officials has not had any additional costs, according to spokeswoman Natalie Barton.
Rep. Robert Aderholt says delay on federal immigration program in Alabama is due to politics | al.com
