Thread: Mass. delays signing up for immigration program

Mass. delays signing up for immigration program
By Mike Beaudet
FOX News Boston, September 23, 2010
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/und ... m-20100923
VIDEO AT LINK
Gov. Deval Patrick's public safety administration has sat for a year on a request by federal immigration authorities to sign up for a controversial new program aimed at finding and deporting immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds, preventing local police outside of Boston from taking part in it, a FOX Undercover investigation has found.

The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Immigration asked state officials in September 2009 to sign a memorandum of agreement they say is needed to activate the program, known as Secure Communities, across Massachusetts. But that agreement remains unsigned, meaning no police department in Massachusetts except Boston can access the program, federal officials say. Boston police joined the program as part of a pilot initiative.

Bruce Chadbourne, head of the New England field office of the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and removal division, said he didn't know why the agreement remains unsigned.

'I couldn't speak on behalf of the governor or the state of Massachusetts. I think there's interest and maybe they're just moving slowly at their own pace, but I'm hopeful that in the end we'll be able to work together because I think this is a good program,' he told FOX Undercover.

Chadbourne said Secure Communities is successful because it helps US immigration authorities identify and deport illegal immigrants with serious criminal records, so-called Level 1 offenders.

'Our goal is to pick up those who are priorities, which are Level 1, who are convicted for serious, heinous crimes -- murder, rape, armed robbery. Things like that,' Chadbourne said. 'We've picked up some very bad people and not just gotten them off the streets. We've removed them from the country.'

Secure Communities works by expanding how fingerprints taken by police are used. Now, when police in Massachusetts arrest and fingerprint somebody, the fingerprints are checked against Massachusetts and FBI databases.

With Secure Communities, those fingerprints would also automatically be transmitted to additional immigration-related databases. If a match is made, ICE could detain and possibly deport them.

Boston was one of the first police departments in the country to begin these checks four years ago. Federal officials credit Secure Communities for finding people like the suspect arrested by Boston police for domestic assault and battery in 2009 but who actually was actually an illegal immigrant with gang affiliations who had been previously deported.

'It's one-stop shopping. They run the check, they get the criminal history and they get immigration history while running the fingerprints,' Chadbourne said.

But it's no one-stop shopping for any other police department in Massachusetts. ICE says they need the state to sign the memorandum of agreement to expand in Massachusetts beyond Boston.

So what does Massachusetts say? At first, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety denied holding up Secure Communities, telling FOX Undercover in August, 'We have the infrastructure in place and that is a program that is a choice for cities and towns.'

This week the spokesman admitted in a statement, 'We are engaged in ongoing conversations about Secure Communities.'

We asked whether Gov. Patrick supports the program, but the spokesman would not expand upon his statement, which says, 'The administration supports the deportation of those aliens/illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes.'

'They're certainly missing an opportunity to identify criminal aliens and have them removed from the country,' said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stronger immigration law enforcement, including Secure Communities.

'The end result of this program is that people who are committing crimes here who are foreign nationals get removed. There are fewer criminals plaguing Massachusetts communities. There's no cost to the state. ICE is able to do its job more efficiently. It's a no-brainer,' she said.

No-brainer to some, but not everyone is keen about immigration enforcement. Under Governor Patrick, state police are forbidden from asking about a suspect's immigration status unless it pertains to an investigation.

Others like immigration advocate Eva Millona of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, worry that Secure Communities will actually make communities less secure.

'People will go underground and they will be afraid to go forward and report their crime to the police based on real fears of other family members having no status or being here unlawfully,' Millona said.

While Millona's organization supports a crackdown on criminal aliens, she worries that Secure Communities will give local police an incentive to profile immigrants for arrest. She doesn't want Massachusetts to aprove the Secure Communities agreement.

'I don't think it should be signed before a reform of the whole program occurs,' she said.

Asked about the concerns that Millona and other advocates for immigrants have about Secure Communities, ICE's Chadbourne said, 'I would be more uneasy about letting serious criminals walk around our streets, and because of this program we're able to pick these people up.'

But outside of Boston, this program won't find anyone in Massachusetts until the state acts.

'Now the ball is in their court. We're just waiting to hear back from them,' Chadbourne said.

ICE may be waiting a long time. The Patrick administration refused to tell FOX Undercover if it will sign the agreement to activate Secure Communities statewide.

Despite that, it's picking up some support here.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says it's been a big success in his city. And now a spokesperson for Attorney General Martha Coakley tells us she's in favor of it, too.

When we vote out the scumbag and Charlie Baker gets in he will sign that so fast Deval Patricks head will spin.

The first thing Patrick did when he got in was remove the state cops ability to enforce the laws Romney put into affect.

Deval like harry reid is the best friend an illegal ever had

Opponents blast Patrick on immigration
Governor wary of controversial federal program
By Michael Levenson
Globe Staff / September 24, 2010
Comments (2)

Governor Deval Patrick’s opponents in the governor’s race sharply criticized him yesterday for not joining a controversial federal program designed to identify and deport illegal immigrants arrested for serious crimes.

The Secure Communities program, which began under President George W. Bush and has been greatly expanded by President Obama, requires law enforcement agencies that participate to run the fingerprints of everyone they arrest through federal immigration databases.

Republican Charles D. Baker said Patrick’s refusal to join the initiative, along with 27 other states, shows he is “immensely soft’’ on illegal immigration. Baker said that if he is elected, he will enroll Massachusetts in the program.

“It’s outrageous the governor is dragging his feet on signing an agreement with federal immigration officials for a year now,’’ Baker said at a press conference with former US attorney Michael J. Sullivan outside the State House. “Governor Patrick needs to step up and sign this agreement.’’

Timothy P. Cahill, the state treasurer and an independent candidate for governor, also criticized Patrick for not joining the program, a version of which Boston joined in 2006.

“It has already been a proven success in the city of Boston, and now we must give all local police departments the ability to implement it in their communities,’’ Cahill wrote in a letter to the governor.

The US Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement sent a letter asking the state to join Secure Communities in September 2009. Patrick administration officials said they have concerns that the program ensnares not just illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes but also those arrested for low-level infractions such as traffic offenses and youthful misconduct.

“We absolutely agree that Level 1 offenders characterized by ICE are the people we want off the streets of Massachusetts, and we are working with ICE to make clear that this is what we want to work with them on,’’ said Mary Beth Heffernan, the state’s secretary of public safety and security. “We remain concerned that this program provides a sweep of folks that get caught up in unintended consequences of this law, which is really aimed at violent, Level 1 offenders.’’

Level 1 offenses include crimes such as kidnapping, homicide, sexual assault, robbery, extortion, gun possession, and drug dealing.

Baker pointed out that Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis has been defending the city’s participation in a pilot version of the program. Davis told the Globe this week that his staff has reviewed the list of people turned over to immigration officials and determined that all were serious criminals.

“What more does the governor need on this?’’ Baker said.

A study released last month, however, indicated that the vast majority of people, 79 percent, deported under Secure Communities had no criminal record or were picked up for low-level offenses.

The study by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, the National Day Laborer Organization Network, and the Center for Constitutional Rights was based on deportation and arrest data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The study argued that the program “serves as a smokescreen for racial profiling,’’ by allowing police officers to stop people based on their appearance, knowing they will be deported even if they were wrongfully arrested or are never convicted.

Patrick said he is monitoring the pilot program in Boston, but has not yet decided whether to join the program.

“Let me see what the evidence is from the pilot,’’ the governor said in an interview. “I’m not doing this to make political points. Charlie Baker is making his claims for that reason. I’m about governing, and I’m going to make the decisions based on what I think is best for the Commonwealth as a whole.’’

www.boston.com

Baker would take this election hands down if Cahill wasn't running, This clown jumped on the Ind band wagon from Patricks Dem party. We have are work cut out swinging the voters from Cahill over Bakers way.

Candidates for governor hit Patrick over immigration program
By Mike Beaudet
FOX News Boston, September 23, 2010
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/und ... on-program

Candidates for governor pounced today on the Patrick administration's refusal so far to sign up for a federal program aimed at finding and deporting immigrants with serious criminal records.

'It's outrageous the Governor is dragging his feet about signing an agreement with federal immigration officials for a year now. Governor Patrick needs to step up and sign this agreement,' Republican candidate Charlie Baker said at a press conference on the steps of the State House.

The denunciation came a day after FOX Undercover reported that Massachusetts has not yet signed an agreement with the federal government to join a program called Secure Communities, which runs the fingerprints of suspects arrested by local police through federal immigration databases.

Massachusetts officials haven't signed an agreement given to them in September 2009 by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Without signing the agreement, federal immigration officials can't activate Secure Communities statewide.

At Baker's side was former US Attorney and fellow Republican Michael Sullivan, who said, 'There are criminal aliens that are allowed to walk the streets of the Commonwealth and across our country because Massachusetts is refusing to enter into this memorandum of agreement.'

Gov. Patrick's Independent challenger in the race, state Treasurer Tim Cahill, also called for approving this agreement, saying in a letter to Patrick, ''The Commonwealth's illegal immigration laws, are currently not adequately enforced, and approving this federal program is a step in the right direction.'

FOX Undercover's Mike Beaudet caught up with Gov. Patrick at a campaign event today.

'Do you support the Secure Communities program in Massachusetts?' Beaudet asked.

'Well I think there's a pilot underway now in Boston. And we're watching that. And it's certainly a sensible pilot and we're trying to support that and understand it and then go from there,' Patrick said.

'Why hasn't your administration signed the agreement with the federal government so far?' Beaudet asked.

'Because the pilot's still underway, and as I said, if we're going to be thoughtful about this we should look at the results of that pilot and make our judgment and go from there,' Patrick responded.

'It's rolled out in states all over the country. What exactly are you waiting for?' Beaudet asked.

'You want me to say the same thing one more time?' Patrick responded.

'No I'd like you to give us an answer. Do you support it or not?' Beaudet asked.

'I just did. Thank you,' Patrick said.

Boston's pilot program that Patrick said he's waiting for results from began four years ago -- before Patrick even took office.

Just this week, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told FOX 25 that the program has been a big success in his city. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley also supports Secure Communities.