Thread: Secure Communities Remains Under Fire From Opposite Sides

Secure Communities Remains Under Fire From Opposite Sides

By: Mickey McCarter
11/29/2011 ( 3:15am)

Democrats and Republicans alike have found things to dislike about the Secure Communities program, an initiative by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to check the fingerprints of individuals arrested by state and local police departments to determine their immigration status.

Both sides will take shots at the program again Wednesday, as debate continues over whether the program encourages racial profiling and whether it is applied appropriately. DHS has been pursuing a strategy of deporting serious criminals identified by the Secure Communities fingerprint check, leaving Democrats to object to violations of civil liberties and Republicans to question whether the program goes far enough.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called a press conference concerning Secure Communities on Capitol Hill for Wednesday shortly before the House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on the program. ACLU accuses the program of racial profiling and undermining individual rights.

The goal of the ACLU press conference is to underscore alleged abuses of the Secure Communities program with speakers describing how it infringes on the rights of Americans and hurts policing efforts through distrust of law enforcement communities. Antonio Montejano, a Los Angeles man, is scheduled to describe how he once was detained while his immigration status was investigated after a shoplifting incident despite being an American citizen. Ronald Hampton, a retired police officer, is scheduled to provide his views on how the program creates distrust of police agencies among racial minorities, leaving many serious crimes unreported and uninvestigated.

Some Democrats in Congress, who support the ACLU's views, have become increasingly uncomfortable with Secure Communities, although the program continues to have the direct support of President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. A group of more than 30 Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), wrote to Obama on Nov. 17 to express their discomfort.

In their letter, the lawmakers point to the results of a DHS task force that recently reviewed Secure Communities and concluded that it creates distrust among communities and law enforcement agencies, thereby harming policing efforts.

"The task force report confirms the concerns we have been raising for more than a year," the Democratic lawmakers wrote. "It makes clear that Secure Communities sows mistrust of the police and other uniformed personnel, thereby making our communities less safe. The broad scope of the program means that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are afraid to cooperate with police officers, because doing so may lead to deportation of themselves or their families. This understandable reticence makes it harder for the police to investigate crimes that happen in our communities."

Moreover, the deportation system does not offer the protection of due process and those detained under the Secure Communities program by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are not provided a right to a lawyer, the legislators protested. They demanded an immediate stop to Secure Communities.

The Wednesday hearing of the Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), likely will showcase Republican concerns that guidelines for prosecutorial discretion promulgated by ICE Director John Morton have harmed public safety by letting too many criminal aliens escape deportation.

Witnesses scheduled to appear before the committee Wednesday include ICE associate director Gary Mead and former ICE Director Julie Myers Wood, now an independent consultant at ICS Consulting LLC. Sheriff Sam Page of Rockingham County, NC, also is slated to appear as a law enforcement advocate of Secure Communities.

In previous hearings, Smith has objected to the ICE prosecutorial discretion guidance, focusing on concerns that it is not transparent and that many dangerous criminals may in fact escape deportation because of a lack of scrutiny by DHS. Smith wrote to Napolitano on Nov. 18 to again protest a refusal by her department to date to provide him with "a list of illegal and criminal immigrants that have been flagged by ICE but have not been detained or placed in removal proceedings by the agency."

The Judiciary Committee immigration subcommittee sent a subpoena to DHS for the information on Nov. 4 after Smith requested the information in August.

Smith released a statement lamenting the refusal to provide him with the data as "stonewalling."

"Although officials at the Department of Homeland Security promised they would provide the data requested on criminal immigrants, they have stonewalled my request and provided information that is completely useless to the committee," Smith said. "As part of our oversight responsibility, the committee requested unique identifiers for the criminal immigrants intentionally released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement so that we can cross-check the information to see if they have gone on to commit more crimes. This data will be used to inform Congress on the problem of criminal immigrants and their affect on public safety."

Apparently, DHS supplied Smith with a list that contained only numbers instead of the details he sought on individual illegal aliens.

"It seems administration officials are afraid that the information will show that illegal immigrants intentionally released by ICE have committed crimes that could have been prevented. Why else would they hide the information? The administration's refusal to enforce all immigration laws places our communities at risk," Smith concluded.

http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/today-s ... 01c7a.html