County jailers adding immigration checks to booking process
Thursday January 28, 2010

The immigration status of everyone booked into the McLennan County Jail is being checked against a federal database designed to identify and possibly deport illegal immigrants.

Local law enforcement officials said officers will not ask about a crime suspect’s immigration status when making an arrest.

But once suspects are booked into jail, their fingerprints are matched against not only the FBI’s criminal database but also an immigration database run by the Department of Homeland Security.

The program, known as Secure Communities, was created to rid communities nationwide of “dangerous criminal aliens,â€