Thread: Cold water on ICE's hypocrisy - RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.

Cold water on ICE's hypocrisy - RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.
12:00 AM, Aug. 23, 2011
theleafchronicle.com
Written by
RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.

SAN DIEGO — We already knew that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could be heavy-handed in dealing with illegal immigrants. Now we've learned that it can also be underhanded in dealing with critics.

It uses the bait and switch. It misleads and manipulates. It makes agreements and then, when things don't go its way, it breaks them. It pretends to be a partner with cities and states but winds up being dictatorial.

This became clear when federal immigration officials recently announced that ICE was terminating all existing agreements with local and state jurisdictions regarding the controversial program called Secure Communities. The agency said that ICE Director John Morton had sent a letter to state governors terminating the agreements "to avoid further confusion."

Here's the program: When local or state police arrest someone and take them to jail — even if it's for a minor infraction — they share with federal authorities the fingerprints of anyone who they suspect is an illegal immigrant. The authorities then use the fingerprints to try to confirm those suspicions.

Here's the confusion: Secure Communities is supposed to be focused on violent and hardened criminals. Except that it isn't. It was supposed to be voluntary. Except that it wasn't. And states and localities were supposed to be able to opt out of participating. Except that they couldn't.

Do you want to know why the Obama administration's immigration enforcement policy is so out of whack — to the point where, if it keeps up the current pace, it will have deported more than 1.5 million people by Election Day 2012?

Part of the blame falls on Barack Obama. He isn't really an immigration reformer. He only plays one when appearing before Latino groups leading up to an election year.

But part of the blame belongs to Secure Communities, a cynical program that allows U.S. immigration officials to multiply their manpower by roping local and state police into the enforcement of immigration law.

If this concept rings a bell, it should. The state of Arizona had virtually the same idea, and it wound up being dragged into court by — wait for it — the Obama administration.

The difference is that, in Arizona — where local and state police are required to determine the immigration status of anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant if the person is detained for another offense — the whole transaction happens on the street. With Secure Communities, it happens at the jail.

The effect is the same. Immigrant communities get the message that local police are surrogates for federal immigration agents, and so they steer clear of them. No more reporting crimes, providing information, serving as witnesses or cooperating with local law enforcement in any other way.

When states like Illinois, Massachusetts and New York tried to opt out of Secure Communities, ICE fought back by voiding the agreements. That makes the program mandatory.

These developments didn't sit well with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of the loudest critics of the administration's immigration policies. As someone who has been touring immigrant communities around the country, Gutierrez has seen and heard firsthand the turmoil caused by Secure Communities.

No city in the United States has been hit harder than Los Angeles, where more than 200 people recently gathered to voice complaints about the program as part of an ongoing public discourse organized by local officials. They included 38-year-old Blanca Perez, who said she was arrested several months ago for selling ice cream without a permit. She was fingerprinted, and her fingerprints were sent to federal authorities. And now, thanks to Secure Communities, she is facing deportation. For selling ice cream.

In a letter to Morton, Gutierrez called the program "deeply flawed" and said that the decision to revoke the agreements with states and localities amounted to "changing the rules in midstream" for the sake of "political expediency." The congressman also said he wants ICE, and President Obama, to "work with Congress to eliminate the program and replace it with serious and systemic immigration reform."

Don't hold your breath. The administration has found a nifty tool to boost the number of apprehensions and enhance its immigration enforcement credentials. It's not going to give it up.

After all, ensuring public safety requires vigilance. There are still ice cream vendors left to deport.

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article ... RONTPAGE|s

There are still ice cream vendors left to deport.

Good! Let's get busy and deport them! Who wants to eat their undocumented ice cream anyway? Not me!