San Diego County to take part in immigration fingerprint check

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

5:45 p.m. November 11, 2008

SAN DIEGO – San Diego County is set to participate in a new federal initiative that gives local law enforcement the ability to use fingerprints to check the immigration history and status of people who land in county jails.

The federally funded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program was announced Tuesday by agency officials during the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference at the San Diego Convention Center.

According to ICE, technology will be distributed to participating local agencies nationwide that allows them to check fingerprints against not only the FBI criminal database, but also against the database of the Department of Homeland Security, which contains information on previous deportations and other immigration data.

The emphasis is on locating and deporting people with a criminal history, said David Venturella, executive director of ICE's Secure Communities Program, which seeks to identify deportable individuals with criminal records.

However, officers will also be able to learn if a person is in the country legally, and notify immigration authorities if not.

“We are certainly projecting an increase in the number of people we encounter, and therefore a result in more people being detained and removed,â€