Thread: MoCo Delays Start of Illegal Immigration Deportation Program

MoCo Delays Start of Illegal Immigration Deportation Program
WMAL.com
Martin Di Caro
Sept 15, 2011

Audio @ link

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A federal immigration enforcement program that was scheduled to begin in Montgomery County later this month has been delayed until next year so all Maryland jurisdictions can begin the program at once.

The Secure Communities program is designed to identify illegal immigrants through the scanning of fingerprints of those arrested by local police and sheriff's deputies. Fingerprint scans are shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who then may deport illegal immigrants wanted for serious criminal offenses.

"There is no local involvement. The prints we now send to the FBI, the FBI will share with Homeland Security. That's what Secure Communities is. It is not a local-based program," said Arthur Wallenstein, the director of Montgomery County's Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. "It will be implemented as a mandatory federal initiative state-by-state so all Maryland counties will engage it together."

Immigration advocates say the program should be changed or dropped altogether. Non-criminal undocumented immigrants have been caught in an expanded dragnet where the program has already been implemented, according to Gustavo Andrede, the organizing director of Casa de Maryland, an immigrants' rights group.

"Whereas the Secure Communities program was designed to 'identify and deport serious convicted criminals' from the United States, we see the reality of the ground is very different. In our local area here in Prince George's County in Maryland, the vast majority of immigrants deported through Secure Communities have been found guilty of no crime at all. And the ones that have been convicted of crimes have only been found guilty of small offenses, traffic violations, broken tail lights and the like," Andrede said.

Andrede says the federal government set a goal of deporting 400,000 criminal aliens per year, but there are not that many among the undocumented immigrant community. He added that the program has a chilling effect on local immigrants.

"The effect that Secure Communities has on the communities is to absolutely terrify local residents into not collaborating with local police to solve local crimes... which is antithetical to the program's goals," Andrede said.

"We hope that they either fix the program or get rid of it entirely."

http://www.wmal.com/Article.asp?id=2286446

"There is no local involvement. The prints we now send to the FBI, the FBI will share with Homeland Security. That's what Secure Communities is. It is not a local-based program," said Arthur Wallenstein, the director of Montgomery County's Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. "It will be implemented as a mandatory federal initiative state-by-state so all Maryland counties will engage it together."

Why do all counties have to do it together? DO it county by county, town by town! Why are these criminals given another year safe from deportation??!?!?!