Thread: Immigration screening still used in Texas as other agencies withdraw

Immigration screening still used in Texas as other agencies withdraw

By Lomi Kriel
October 16, 2014 | Updated: October 16, 2014 10:13pm

More than 250 law enforcement agencies across the country have pulled back on a jail screening program for immigrants first piloted six years ago in Harris County, where it continues to be used despite nationwide criticism that it may be unconstitutional.

Under the program, known as Secure Communities, jailers submit the fingerprints of everyone booked into jail to the Department of Homeland Security to run through a huge immigration database. Upon a match, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can file "detainer requests" with local law enforcement agencies, asking them to hold suspects in jail for up to 48 hours until they can be transferred to federal custody for deportation proceedings.

The program has been ICE's signature immigration enforcement initiative, hailed as the "single best tool" to target dangerous criminals, turning local jails into tiny immigration outposts. Harris County has deported 24,161 immigrants through Secure Communities since 2008, the largest number in the state, with the Houston region removing the fourth-most immigrants in the nation, according to ICE figures through August.

It's been controversial since it was unveiled in 2008. Critics charge it unfairly targets Latinos and deports illegal immigrants caught for minor crimes rather than focusing ICE's limited resources on violent offenders.

Still, it wasn't until a spate of court rulings this spring that agency after agency began either ignoring detainer requests for immigrants or restricting in which cases they would continue to hold suspects, pending transfer to federal authorities.

Needs 'a fresh start'
In March, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania ruled that states and local agencies don't have to honor detainer requests because they don't amount to the probable cause required by the Constitution to keep someone in jail. In April a federal judge in Oregon ruled Clackamas County officials had illegally held a woman for 19 hours - even though she was otherwise eligible for release - while waiting for ICE agents to collect her. Other judges have followed suit, and in May Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called the program "very controversial" and in need of  "a fresh start."

Bucking the nationwide trend is Texas, in which every county jail continues to comply with ICE detainer requests by holding suspects whose finderprints match the immigration database. Adrian Garcia, Harris County's first Hispanic sheriff who has pushed for immigration reform and is considered a mayoral front-runner to succeed Annise Parker next year, defended his agency's continued compliance with detainer requests. Because ICE operates within the jail, he said inmates are almost "instantaneously" transferred to the agency's custody, so there's little lag time between when they've been arraigned on their charges and are turned over to ICE.

But across the country, states, cities and even Fulton County in conservative Georgia are limiting how and when they'll cooperate with ICE, with some choosing to ignore detainer requests all together. This month, New York City is poised to pass the country's most extensive legislation yet limiting the program. Under it, police and prison officials could only honor ICE requests to hold a suspect for 48 hours if he or she has been convicted of a "violent or serious" crime and is the subject of a federal warrant.

"Agencies fear they'll be liable for unconstitutional detention," said Lena Graber, an attorney specializing on the issue for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit focused on immigrant rights. The center has tracked around 255 agencies that have restricted the use of detainers, while ICE tallied 157 through the end of August, though many have curtailed it in just the past few weeks.

"In some cases," Graber said, "they're just seeing this as bad policy, because having local law enforcement be the gateway to deportation really undermines the community's relationship with police and the ability to report crimes."

In a statement, ICE said the program remains necessary because it ensures "dangerous criminals" aren't released into communities and said it would continue enforcing its priorities of deporting "convicted criminals and other public safety threats."

But whether the program actually does that is a matter of debate.
According to a 2011 University of California at Berkeley Law School analysis of a random sampling of federal data, just more than a quarter of those deported through Secure Communities were convicted of the most serious crimes such as aggravated felonies. But nearly the same amount faced only misdemeanors, including traffic offenses like driving drunk or with a suspended license. Another 40 percent weren't given a Secure Communities offense level, suggesting they faced no charges other than being in the U.S. illegally.

Facing widespread criticism, ICE has curtailed the scope of Secure Communities. In 2010, the agency announced it would focus on deporting immigrants who threaten public safety, return after having been deported, or are recent arrivals at the border. Since then, sheriff's office spokesman Alan Bernstein said the number of ICE detainers placed on Harris County inmates fell from about 1,000 to 300 a month. This year, he said an average of 25 people detained through Secure Communities have been deported each month.

Crime data
Overall, ICE data shows that 31 percent of all those deported through Harris County were convicted of the most serious crimes of aggravated felonies; 38 percent were convicted of misdemeanors.

Garcia said many of those deported after being charged with a misdemeanor likely also faced an immigration crime such as re-entering after being previously removed. Such immigration crimes made up nearly one-fifth of all criminal deportations between 2003-2013, according to an analysis of federal data by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit studying immigration policy.

Harris County, Garcia said, rarely receives ICE detainers for people charged with the least serious offenses such as driving with a suspended license. Such Class C misdemeanors typically don't include jail time.

After sheriff's officials noted with concern earlier this year that many deportees were charged with Class B misdemeanors such as marijuana possession and shoplifting, Garcia said he asked ICE for more information on the immigration history of deported inmates.

According to the report ICE sent Harris County, three-quarters of all those deported through the program during the first eight months of this year had previously been removed. Of the remainder, many had either opted to leave the U.S. voluntarily and failed to do so, or ignored a judge's order to return to court. More than half were men younger than 35, and 85 percent were Mexican.

Garcia said he'd be open to discussing limiting the types of crimes for which the agency honors ICE detainers. But, he added, "It's trying to find the right perspective on those offenses that may not sound heinous and terrible but could be those things that could destroy a family," such as drunk driving, domestic violence, and unlawfully carrying a weapon, all misdemeanors.
Still, Harris County and Texas may be outliers in the matter, according to Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's New York office.

While Secure Communities has become the "most effective force multiplier" in immigration enforcement, Chishti said, "the trend is clearly going in the direction of less compliance with detainer requests, and eventually the federal government will have to adjust its policy to that."

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...as-5828422.php

Harris County has deported 24,161 immigrants through Secure Communities since 2008,

Deported by Secure Communities from Texas - 95,179

Deported by Secure Communities from California - 118,439

http://www.alipac.us/f12/375-031-dep...2014-a-311693/