ICE: New Jailed Illegal Immigrant Identification System Removes Guesswork

Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security
November 12, 2009 Thursday
By Matt Korade, CQ Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to do away with a major component of a controversial program that deputizes law enforcement officers to serve as immigration agents.

The new plan: expand another initiative to provide law enforcement agencies across the country with access to federal justice and immigration databases by 2013, allowing officers to identify more easily whether those arrested are illegal immigrants and deport the ones who have committed crimes.

The new plan expands another initiative by enabling officers to more easily identify illegal immigrants and deport those who have committed a crime by providing law enforcement agencies across the country with access to federal justice and immigration databases. The plan is to go nationwide by 2013.

"It's the wave of the future," ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton said after a news conference on the program with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and local law enforcement officials Thursday.

Morton said the new "Secure Communities" program would not supplant all aspects of the current system, known as "287g" after the section of the 1996 immigration overhaul law (PL 107-125) that created it. It would only replace the element of 287(g) that uses local law enforcement to identifies criminal illegal immigrants in jails. Other elements of the

program, such as the ability of local law enforcement to use immigration task forces and receive federal logistical support, would be continued, he said.

Officials said the Secure Communities approach removes much of the guesswork in today's system.

Currently, when people are arrested in the United States, their fingerprints are taken and run against FBI databases to determine if they have a criminal history. Under the new system, their fingerprints will also be run against DHS's immigration databases to determine if the detainees are in the country unlawfully.

When there's a match with immigration records, ICE is determines whether a person is deportable, focusing on removing most serious offenders first.

"And the key point is, we do this for everyone," Morton said. "There is no distinction between citizen or noncitizen. Every single person who is taken into jail gets their fingerprints checked, gets their immigration history checked."

Secure Communities was originally launched in Harris County, Texas, about a year ago, and has since expanded to 95 jurisdictions in 11 states, including every state on the southwest border, Morton said.

In its first year, the program identified 11,000 "level-one" offenders, including convicted murderers, rapists, kidnappers and major drug dealers, Morton said. The program has also identified 100,000 lesser offenders, including those convicted of property crimes, burglary and other drug offenses.

Morton used the example of a Boston case where a man was arrested for assault and battery. His fingerprints were submitted, and the check turned up a lengthy criminal record, including a conviction of felony assault with intent to kill and charges of rape, and drug possession, among other things.

"The good news is, as a result, he's in custody and pending removal from the U.S.," Morton said.

At the news conference, Napolitano ticked off what she called beneficial aspects of Secure Communities.

It can be implemented at little or no cost to agencies, requires few changes to the standard booking process, leverages existing technology, and is fair, because the fingerprints of every detainee are checked, she said. And it requires less manpower, because biometric information provides more accurate information in a timely manner.

"It's infinitely more accurate than biographical information given in an interview," she said.

The 287(g) program empowers law enforcement officers to make arrests and determine the legal and criminal status of detainees, but it has come under fire from civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups.

Those groups allege that 287(g) authority allows law enforcement officers to engage in racial profiling, and that some police forces around the country are arresting Hispanics on minor offenses to check their legal status and possibly deport them.

In response to those critics, during the George W. Bush administration, ICE said the 287(g) program should focus on finding illegal immigrants already in custody, an approach President Obama honed further in prioritizing the most serious offenders for deportation.

Matt Korade can be reached at mkorade@cq.com.

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