No opting out of Secure Communities

[Neal...@aol.com]

No opting out of Secure Communities

Once believed to be voluntary, municipal participation in a widely debated immigration enforcement program has been revealed as essentially mandatory. The so-called “Secure Communities Initiative” (S-COMM), automatically submits the digital fingerprints of anyone admitted into a local jail—prior to any conviction or exoneration—to immigration databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. S-COMM currently operates in 32 states but it will soon be nationwide.

Critics of S-COMM note that the program has led to deportations and arrests based on racial or ethnic profiling, often destroying families—many of which include US citizens, who are left behind when their undocumented relatives are deported. Rather than enhance public safety, the program has encouraged crime in two ways. First, according to Jim Graham of the Washington, DC, City Council, "[S-COMM] distracts scarce police resources—they have to hold people until ICE can get to them. We want those resources devoted to crime-fighting."

Second, sheriffs and police chiefs fear it will discourage undocumented immigrants from reporting crimes for fear of deportation. A 2008 analysis by the Goldwater Institute in Arizona found that the similar 287(g) program—which was independently criticized by the DHS Inspector General, an internal federal government watchdog—struck widespread fear into immigrant communities and discouraged information reports to local police about potential crime.

According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), towns and cities may not opt out of the program, which circumvents municipalities by directly providing FBI fingerprint data to ICE. Counties across the country have tried to opt out of participation in S-COMM in order to promote positive relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement. Counties that opt out simply don’t provide fingerprints to ICE. However, since local police departments generally continue to share fingerprints with the FBI, and we now know that ICE has access to fingerprint data through the FBI, there is no viable way for a community to opt out of S-COMM.

 

http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/2010/10/