Thread: Providence Says No to Secure Communities

Providence Says No to Secure Communities

by Julianne Hing
Wednesday, March 9 2011, 10:00 AM EST

In the latest chapter in Rhode Island’s ongoing controversy around Secure Communities, the city council of Providence last week passed a resolution announcing the city’s opposition to the immigration enforcement program.

The Anti-Secure Communities Resolution was introduced by City Councilor Seth Yurdin and passed after immigrant and civil rights groups testified about the harmful effects of Secure Communities on public safety and the immigrant community.

In January, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin signed the entire state up for Secure Communities, the federal program that allows immigration authorities to investigate the immigration status of anyone in police custody. The announcement prompted Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steve Pare to send a letter to the Department of Homeland Security saying the city wanted to opt out of the program.

Pare’s letter led to a dust-up with the State Police Superintendent Brendan Doherty, who quit in February, just two weeks into his tenure after publicly tussling with Gov. Lincoln Chafee on the issue. Doherty supports Secure Communities, which Chafee had asked him to refrain from publicly commenting on. Chafee announced Doherty’s replacement on Monday—former U.S. Marshall Steve O’Donnell. The Providence Journal reports that O’Donnell’s appointment signals Chafee’s implicit support for Secure Communities.

“Our issue is, someone’s in our custody and we don’t want to release them until we’ve vetted them,â€

RELATED

NO OPT-OUT of Secure Communities

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-214166.html

I Called Mr Pare today and left a voice message about this.
To my surprise he called me back and we talked about 20 minutes.
He said that his problem with secure communities is that it does not always get the violent criminal and he doesnt like the fact that it does get those whose only crime in a minor one. he wants the hardened criminal deported but not so much those arrested for speeding or whatever

Providence still helping ICE with arrests in federal cases
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 10, 2011

By Gregory Smith

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — The police are continuing to enforce arrest warrants for immigrants charged with federal immigration crimes despite a misimpression that may have arisen from the controversy over the city’s resistance to the Secure Communities program, Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Pare said Wednesday.

City officials expressed concern that the public might think that the police are not cooperating at all with federal immigration officials.

But the police don’t enforce federal detainers for civil immigration offenses.

“It is my strong belief that the Providence police shouldn’t be doing the work of immigration officers,â€

Well entry into a country is not a minor crime. Its not jaywalking, its not spitting on the street. It is a crime, it is illegal for them to use false or stolen ID, it is illegal for them to drive without a license, and it is illegal for them to work here. Illegals drain the economy of every community, increase the crime rate, drain community resources, take jobs that legal citizens can work, take seats in our schools that legal students should have.

Not guilty of serious crimes.....he needs to get priorities right.

Originally Posted by jean

Providence still helping ICE with arrests in federal cases

Pare and Mayor Angel Taveras contend that participation in Secure Communities will force the police into the role of immigration agents and sow fear and mistrust of the police in the general community.

Crime victims and witnesses who were born abroad and are in the U.S. legally or illegally would be especially reluctant to cooperate with the police due to fear that they would be swept up in the immigration-enforcement system, Pare has said.

Nonsense. From a recent thread: "As for the oft-repeated claim that programs like these will make immigrant crime victims hesitant to report crimes, that turns out to be more fear-mongering than fact. In the Center for Immigration Studies report, 'We could find no substantiated cases of crime victims who were removed as a result of having reported crimes to authorities, unless the victims happened to be criminals as well.

"University of Virginia researchers found little difference between Virginia's Prince William County Hispanic and non-Hispanic crime-reporting rates."
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New police chief named after immigration policy dispute

By Morgan Johnson
Contributing Writer
Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011
Updated: Thursday, March 10, 2011 03:03

Brendan Doherty, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, announced his resignation March 3, a week after he spoke out in support of the federal immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities. The public resignation followed a high-profile exchange in which top law enforcement officials in Providence and Rhode Island butted heads over immigration policy.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 appointed U.S. Marshal Steven O'Donnell to replace Doherty March 7. The shake-up came after Doherty stated his support for Secure Communities Feb. 23 in response to Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare's request for the city to opt out of the program almost two weeks earlier.

Secure Communities works to identify and deport illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. The program allows local law enforcement to check fingerprints of alleged criminals against Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security records. If the fingerprints match those of a person who is undocumented, law enforcement can deport the individual. The immigration enforcement agency aims to implement the program nationwide by 2013, according to its website.

Refusal to utilize the Secure Communities' modern technology "defies logic," Doherty said in a statement on Pare's decision. The statement came as a surprise to the Chafee administration, which later asked Doherty in a private meeting to refrain from commenting publicly on Secure Communities until the governor determined his position on the program, multiple news sources reported Feb. 24.

"The Secure Communities program will create fear and mistrust between the community and law enforcement — thus undermining our community policing model and risking the public safety of our capital city," Pare wrote in a letter asking the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the program, to allow Providence to stop enforcing it. The immigration enforcement agency is a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security.

In his statement, Doherty said he had considered resigning from the position several months ago, quelling speculation that Chafee might have pushed him out.

"I would take him at his word that he's considered leaving for a while, and circumstances would suggest that his difference of opinion probably brought on his decision," said Victor Profughi, Rhode Island College professor emeritus of political science and CEO and research director of the polling firm Quest Research.

In Monday's press conference, Chafee introduced his new appointee O'Donnell as one of President Clinton's "10 top cops" in 1996.

During a conversation with O'Donnell, Chafee agreed to back Secure Communities in instances of violent crime, according to a March 7 Providence Journal article. "We want to make sure we work with the immigrant community," Chafee told the Journal.

But there is no indication that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will allow partial participation in the program, local immigration lawyer Roberto Gonzales said. So far, the agency has yet to state publicly whether communities will be permitted to opt out of the program.

"Secure Communities is a prime example of Orwellian doublespeak," said Alejo Stark '12, a member of the Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition. Stark said the program would further strain the already rocky relationship between police and the immigrant community. "When my grandfather was robbed in front of my house after driving home from work, the last thing my family thought about was calling the police," Stark said.

The group's members, in partnership with local organizations, are giving "Know Your Rights" training sessions for illegal immigrants to inform them of their rights in dealing with the police, Stark said.

Secure Communities "isn't what it's cracked up to be," Gonzales said. He added that increased racial profiling is a major issue with the program's implementation.

"Communities have been reporting more instances of police stops and arrests based on appearance and not for any other reason," Gonzales said. "They'll run fingerprints through the program after a traffic stop."

http://www.browndailyherald.com/new-pol ... -1.2510252