Thread: Marlborough councilor wants city to join Secure Communities

Marlborough councilor wants city to join Secure Communities

By Paul Crocetti/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 11, 2011 @ 12:00 AM

MARLBOROUGH — A city councilor is taking his initiative to track and deport violent illegal immigrants to Beacon Hill this week.

Councilor Matt Elder wants Marlborough to take part in a federal program, called Secure Communities, in which the fingerprints of people who are arrested are shared with federal immigration authorities.

Immigrants here illegally who have been charged or convicted of violent and other serious crimes would be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

Elder's proposal is on hold because councilors have received different reports about whether or not the city can opt in to the program.

"We're still trying to figure out what can and can't happen," Elder said.

Police Chief Mark Leonard, who supports the act on its face, said he learned from ICE that individual cities and towns can't opt in to the program since Gov. Deval Patrick chose not to sign a memorandum of understanding accepting the act. Signing the agreement would have put all Massachusetts cities and towns into the program.

Critics say the measure encourages racial profiling and would discourage immigrants who are the victims of crime from reporting it to police.

The Greater Boston Tea Party has been advocating for the act's full implementation and reached out to Elder to speak about his proposal.

"We are proponents of Secure Communities based on public safety," said Christen Varley, a Holliston resident and president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. "There's no reason to stand in the way of municipalities."

Elder will speak Wednesday at the State House at a lobbying day of the Greater Boston Tea Party and Empower Massachusetts, a conservative activist group for limited government.

Elder said he initially heard from ICE that the city could apply to join the program. The program targets violent, dangerous illegal immigrants who have already been arrested, Elder said.

"We seem to be getting conflicting information," said state Rep. Steven Levy, R-Marlborough.

Participants in the lobbying day are expected to hear several speakers and then try to talk to state representatives and senators about their issues. State Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Pembroke, is scheduled to speak about the economic impact of illegal immigrants, Varley said.

Levy, a city councilor who supports Elder's proposal, said he plans to meet with the groups.

Elder said he hopes the state will pass a measure that would allow Marlborough to join the federal program.

In a letter to the federal Department of Homeland Security, state Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said enforcing federal immigration regulations should be left to federal agencies.

While there are more than 1,300 Secure Communities today, ICE is on track to expand the program everywhere nationwide by 2013, said spokesman Chuck Jackson.

Elder said he appreciates the push to expand but is hesitant to believe it will happen by 2013.

The City Council last month referred discussion of Elder's proposal to the Operations and Oversight Committee.

(Paul Crocetti can be reached at 508-490-7453 or pcrocetti@wickedlocal.com.)

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/ ... ommunities

Marlboro MA would convey more info in the headline. Most people there do not use the formal spelling anyway.

Marlborough residents lead charge for Secure Communities program

By Kendall Hatch/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News

Posted Jul 14, 2011 @ 12:00 AM


BOSTON —


At a State House event yesterday, local lawmakers and residents said they're frustrated by the confusion over whether the Secure Communities program can be enacted in individual cities and towns.

"I want to find out if (Secure Communities) is right for Marlborough," said Marlborough City Councilor Matt Elder. "We are at a standstill right now."

The event, which drew about 100 tea party activists from across the state, was a chance for residents to talk to their lawmakers about issues they care about. MetroWest representatives and residents focused primarily on illegal immigration.

Elder had previously drafted an order seeking to have Marlborough Police take steps to enroll in the program, which is intended to identify illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes and transfer them to federal custody.

Gov. Deval Patrick has refused to sign a memorandum of understanding that would have had the state participate in the federal program.

Elder said yesterday that he had heard from federal officials that individual towns and cities could easily opt in to Secure Communities, and he'd asked Police Chief Mark Leonard about it.

Leonard, though, said he spoke with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington and learned it may not be possible for Marlborough to join on its own.

"My understanding is that it's not an option right now for individual towns and cities to sign on to that program," the chief said in an interview Tuesday.

Leonard said he thinks if the program were instituted correctly, it could be effective.

The program calls for local police to send the fingerprints of anyone they arrest to the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which would check them against a federal database. If the person is an illegal immigrant who had committed a serious crime, that person would be transferred to federal custody for deportation.

Elder said while fingerprints are already sent to other federal agencies like the FBI, the state ultimately controls where prints can be sent.

"The city is trying to reach out to the federal government, and the state is essentially slapping our hand out of the way and saying, 'You can't do that,"' he said

Elder said he thinks communities should be able to govern as they see fit.

State Rep. Stephen Levy, R-Marlborough, who also serves on the Marlborough City Council, said he takes issue with Patrick's decision not to sign the memorandum of understanding. Opponents of the measure, he said, have tried to frame the Secure Communities program as an anti-immigrant initiative that would harm communication between immigrant residents and police.

Only violent offenders would be at risk of deportation, Levy says.

"The argument is being twisted and misrepresented," he said. "This is not an immigration act. It's a security act for our communities."

Christen Varley, a Holliston resident and president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, said she thinks Secure Communities is important for every town, including those with few illegal immigrants.

Holliston is "in between Framingham and Milford," she said. "We are an illegal-alien superhighway. I want this implemented in every town."

Marlborough's Matt O'Brien, who said it was his first time lobbying at the State House, said yesterday that he wants to be welcoming to immigrants, but thinks that dangerous criminals should be sent packing.

"There are criminals that have been convicted of violent crimes," O'Brien said. "If we can't at least draw the line there, that is an absolute disgrace."

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