Sheriff Page testifies before Congress

Sheriff Sam Page spoke to congress about the Secure Communities Program on Wednesday.

By: Danielle Battaglia
Published: December 04, 2011

The Secure Communities Program was discussed in Congress Wednesday, and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page was invited to testify on his sentiment toward the program.

Page went before Congress at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, in the Rayburn House Office to discuss why he is in favor of the program.

The Secure Communities Program is used by all 100 counties in North Carolina. It allows the sheriff’s office to access the immigration system while processing fingerprints to determine who a person really is and his or her immigration status.

Page believes the program has helped Rockingham County immensely. Prior to the start of Secure Communities, deputies were left to only listen to what a person told them. They were not able to check on the identity of that person. Being able to identify with certainty who an individual is helps the county, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE has the final say on whether to issue a detainer on a person or not.

Page said in Rockingham County he has had 49 detainers, 39 people have been removed from his prison has a result of this program, four of them have been charged with assault on a female or domestic assault and one has been charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.

Ten of these people have been released back into the county following prosecution and have then been arrested for a new crime.

Page wasn’t the only person speaking to Congress about the program. Former Sacramento (Calif.) chief of police Arturo Venegas Jr. spoke out against the program.

Venegas is a member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Taskforce on Secure Communities. He also is a member of the National Latino Peace Officers Association who stated in a letter to the Secure Communities Advisory Committee on June 30 of three recommendations for change to the Secure Communities Program.

The first of those changes would be “to tailor the program to focus only on individuals convicted of only serious crimes.â€