Thread: Popular Ariz. anti-immigration program under fire nationally

Popular Ariz. anti-immigration program under fire nationally
Luke Witman
Tucson Immigration Examiner
August 15, 2011

A group of immigration activists in Illinois filed suit last week against the Department of Homeland Security, seeking to halt enforcement of the federal government’s Secure Communities Program. The national program enables Immigration and Customs Enforcement to require local law enforcement to detain individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants until immigration status can be determined, even when there is no evidence of illegal activity. Secure Communities has led to the deportation of 109,000 individuals since it was founded in 2008.

The Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center alleges in its lawsuit that the Secure Communities Program is depriving detained immigrants of their constitutional right to due process, since individuals are not informed that an ICE retainer has been issued against them, and they thus have no recourse to challenge their detention. In addition, NIJC argues that the program is unconstitutional as it requires state governments to implement federal law.

Several states have attempted to opt out of participation in Secure Communities, including Ill., Mass., N.Y., and D.C. as well as counties in Vir. and Calif. However, the Obama administration made it clear last week that states and communities do not have the option to opt out of the federal program, and that governors who had not yet authorized their state’s participation were to do so immediately.

Southern Arizona has largely served as a model for the program, with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio acting as a sort of paradigm of local law enforcement participation in federal immigration enforcement. According to ICE statistics, Arizona sports the third highest number of deportations through Secure Communities of any U.S. state at over 15,000, and 89 percent of those were deported from Arpaio’s district. In fact, only one U.S. county, Los Angeles, Calif., has had more Secure Communities deportations than Maricopa.

Although Secure Communities may be under fire from state governments elsewhere in the nation, it is being embraced here in Arizona both by state and local officials and by the public, which largely continues to embrace harsh anti-immigrant political positions. As Obama continues to try to win unrelenting states over to the Secure Communities, one can assume that Arizona will serve as a model of what he and others view as the successes of the program.

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..the Secure Communities Program is depriving detained immigrants of their constitutional right to..

Aw, hogwash, people who are here illegally don't have any rights in this country except to emergency care and a pass back to where they came from. Tired of this crap.