Thread: Illinois activists, sheriffs blast Secure Communities

Illinois activists, sheriffs blast Secure Communities program

Published March 29, 2011

Chicago – Lawmakers, sheriffs and activists held a press conference here Monday to denounce federal immigration authorities' Secure Communities program and promote a bill that would give Illinois counties the right to opt out of the initiative.

"This program has driven a wedge between the community and the police," Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told reporters in Chicago.

Together with the mayors of two of the 26 Illinois counties that since 2009 have participated in the program, Hoyt said that Secure Communities is not the tool promised to local police forces to identify dangerous criminals and expel them from the country.

"It sounds like a conspiracy by the Department of Homeland Security just to persecute Mexicans and destroy families," he added.

The activists also criticized a maneuver by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to impose the program in Chicago and surrounding Cook County.

They founded their criticism on an article in The New York Times based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that ICE contractors suggested pressuring Cook County authorities into taking part in Secure Communities.

The program permits fingerprints taken by the police of detained or arrested suspects to be sent to ICE for comparison with their archives and those of the FBI.

Around 77 of the people arrested in Illinois who were turned over to ICE did not have criminal records, according to the ICIRR.

In the counties of Winnebago, Madison and St. Clair, none of the people detained under Secure Communities had a criminal record, as was true of 82 percent of those arrested in Kane County.

Meanwhile the Chicago Tribune reported that sheriff's deputies in McHenry County systematically subjected Latinos to racial profiling and then would falsify the statistics to hide that fact.

One of those taking part in Monday's press conference, Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez, said the Secure Communities program was "sold" to local authorities through misrepresentation and that it is resulting in injustices on a daily basis.

For his part, Mark Curran, the sheriff of Lake County, said that the "limbo" in which police departments find themselves results in injustices being committed.

Sheriffs Perez and Curran supported the "Smart Enforcement Act," a bill in the state legislature that would give each of Illinois's 102 counties the option not to participate in Secure Communities, or to withdraw from the program any time they feel that its goals are not being fulfilled.

In addition, the law would provide transparency for the costs of the projects for Illinois taxpayers and would prohibit state funds from being used to deport undocumented immigrants with no criminal records.

"The contributors want the police offices to provide effective public security and spend their resources in an efficient manner," said State Representative Daniel Burke, sponsor of the bill.

Gov. Pat Quinn put the expansion of Secure Communities in Illinois on hold pending a probe of how the program is working, while Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel promised to maintain the local ordinance that made the city into a "sanctuary" where the police do not ask the immigration status of foreigners.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... s-program/

Sounds like a bunch of sheriffs campaign talking points who are trying to get reelected by a liberal illegal hugging community.

Dixie

"It sounds like a conspiracy by the Department of Homeland Security just to persecute Mexicans and destroy families," he added.

Undocumented aliens should have thought about family values when they unlawfully traveled to the U.S.

"It sounds like a conspiracy by the Department of Homeland Security just to persecute Mexicans and destroy families," he added.

and he expects people to take him serious when he says stupid crapola like this!?!?!? gimme a break.

ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL no matter where they are from. ya twit

Sheriffs Perez and Curran supported the "Smart Enforcement Act," a bill in the state legislature that would give each of Illinois's 102 counties the option not to participate in Secure Communities, or to withdraw from the program any time they feel that its goals are not being fulfilled.

Sheriff Curran: You represent my community that has been destroyed by illegal invaders. I remember when I moved here I could take long walks down the bike path that abuts our property. No longer. There are too many Latin King and MS13 tags there for me to feel safe. Oh yeah, and the bullet holes in the mile markers. I will actively campaign for your opponent in the next election. We got rid of Melissa Bean and you're next.