Report: Secure Communities affects U.S. citizens, too

Art by José Luís Agapito/Flickr (Creative Commons)

A new report examining Secure Communities, the immigration enforcement program partly responsible for the Obama administration’s record number of deportations, reveals some of the demographics, immigration status, and other key details about who has been arrested and deported under the program since it began rolling out in 2008.

Secure Communities allows for the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration officials, who are notified when prints match immigration records. The idea is to net undocumented immigrants and deportable legal residents with criminal records, a stated goal of the Obama administration.

But as noted in the report by the UC Berkeley Law School, U.S. citizens are affected by the program in more ways than one might think. Citizens have been arrested, and to a much larger degree, have had family members deported. According to the report, nearly 40 percent of the people arrested by immigration authorities under Secure Communities have been the spouses or parents of U.S. citizens.

From a list of key findings:

• Approximately 3,600 United States citizens have been arrested by ICE through the Secure Communities program.

• More than one-third (39%) of individuals arrested through Secure Communities report that they have a U.S. citizen spouse or child, meaning that approximately 88,000 families with U.S. citizen members have been impacted by Secure Communities.

Among the other key findings: As reported in the New York Times, Latinos are disproportionately affected, with a greater percentage of Latinos arrested through Secure Communities than there are Latino undocumented immigrants (though it’s worth noting that legal U.S. residents with criminal offenses may also be arrested and deported). From the report:

• Latinos comprise 93% of individuals arrested through Secure Communities though they only comprise 77% of the undocumented population in the United States.

Other findings from the report, which also examined due process issues:

• Only 52% of individuals arrested through Secure Communities are slated to have a hearing before an immigration judge.

• Only 24% of individuals arrested through Secure Communities and who had immigration hearings had an attorney compared to 41% of all immigration court respondents who have counsel.

• Only 2% of non-citizens arrested through Secure Communities are granted relief from deportation by an immigration judge as compared to 14% of all immigration court respondents who are granted relief.

• A large majority (83%) of people arrested through Secure Communities is placed in ICE detention as compared with an overall DHS immigration deten-tion rate of 62%, and ICE does not appear to be exercising discretion based on its own prioritization system when deciding whether or not to detain an individual.

Yesterday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that close to 400,000 people were deported in federal fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30. This breaks the previous year’s record for the most deportations in U.S. history. Nearly 55 percent of those deported in the past year had criminal records, some more serious than others. The number of people with criminal records deported is up 89 percent from three years ago, according to the agency.

The Obama administration has credited Secure Communities and 287(g), another program in which local law enforcement officials cooperate with the federal government, with rounding up more people with criminal records for deportation.

But critics of this approach say that programs like Secure Communities also land many non-criminals and low-level offenders in deportation proceedings, and that the program undermines local law enforcement efforts by eroding immigrant communities’ trust in police.

  • http://twitter.com/maryirenealex Masha

    In another 10-15 years all
    the today’s kids of undocumented parents will turn 18. They will be able
    to vote, they will be able to bring their deported parents back, as
    there no visa limits for immediate family members of American citizens.
    Is it realy smart to spend all the money to deport people today just to
    get them back in 10-15 years? Is it realy smart to put another 4 500
    000 American citizen children in foster care after deporting their
    parents? American taxpayers will have to pay to deport parents of 4 500
    000 American citizen children. Then they will have to pay to feed,
    cloth, house and educate 4 500 000 American citizen children, provide
    them with medical care for the next 10-15 years. Then all the deported
    parents will be back, applying for SSI and welfare based on
    physiological depression triggered by deportation and separation from
    their children and spouses for decades. There probably will be some kind
    of compensation from the Government like American Japanese got for
    being detained in camps during World War Two. What is more humane and
    more beneficial for the economy: spend trillions of dollars on
    deportations and social services only to get all the deportees back in
    15 years, or stop the deportations and Reform the Immigration system?
    Bringing people from the shadows will strengthen the consumer base and
    jump start the economy. It had always happened in the past.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Francis/100002158029860 Dave Francis

    In
    Las Vegas last night the best yet presidential candidate’s debate, the sixth
    people standing behind their lecterns pledged a stand against the illegal
    immigration occupation. However, all the Republicans remained somewhat
    tough-tied, when it comes to an overall coherent agenda that could resolve most
    of this nation’s illegal alien issue.

     

    As in the statement by the pro-sovereignty organizations and restricting
    of legal immigration NumbersUSA site during this deep recession: The plan
    is simple, reasonable and equally achievable. Any candidate on the platform
    could win the hearts and admiration of millions of voters, including the tens
    of millions of Tea Party members by adopting this plan and learning to
    articulate its worth.

    This is a five step plan, to each of your favorite
    presidential candidates, which should include current President
    Obama. By going to NumbersUSA website you can study each grading for each
    potential personage. On the grid, you can click on any photograph to access the
    contact information.

    HERE IS THE PRINCIPLE ISSUES:

    1. By securing the border as addressed in the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which
    Michelle Bachmann outlined in the debate.

    2. A goal of reversing illegal immigration.

    The federal government’s goal relating to illegal immigration should be to
    reduce the number of illegal aliens in our country, over a period of time and
    in an orderly fashion using every means possible. Representative Lamar Smith’s
    LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” is a great beginning and should be mandatory act.

    Halting illegal immigration as it now, isn’t enough. Securing the borders as it
    is now, isn’t enough.

    The US authorities have to affect 20 million plus foreigners, to return to
    their homeland. So instead of America becoming an importer of people, we have to
    append more resources to de-magnetizing the attraction and become a net
    exporter of illegal immigration annually.

    A conscientious approach to illegal immigration would seek to craft a program, a
    number of illegal aliens who leave the country annually greater than the number
    who enter the country–annually. Experts who study these policies judge that we
    could attain a net outflow between one million and two million per year by
    implementing or enhancing a handful of procedures that are already known to be
    effective, and in fact are largely premised on existing law. Namely:

    turning off the jobs magnet by requiring workplace
    verification of legal status (i.e., requiring all employers to use the
    existing but not-yet-mandatory program known as E-Verify); Waiting for a
    floor vote, but held back by some Republican politicians.turning off various other magnets such as in-state
    tuition, drivers licenses and birthright citizenship; Building an effective, physical fence on the Mexican
    border; The 2006 Secure Fence Act planned as a double layer fence,
    stretching the majority of the border, with the top lined with concertina
    razor wire.  Between fences a
    no-man’s land for use of mobile Border Patrol units and military troops. deploying a reliable check-in/check-out system for
    visitors to the United States (i.e., fixing the current program known as
    US VISIT); and Enforcing existing deportation laws to perhaps double
    the effect of current enforcement.

    These five measures alone should reduce
    our illegal alien population by half in less than six years. Let us consider
    each measure in turn.

    THE 5 STEPS

    Turning off the jobs magnet.

    By far the most significant means of reversing illegal immigration is to stop
    illegal aliens from holding jobs. Without jobs, most illegal aliens will find
    it difficult to support themselves and will return home.

    Candidates would do well to endorse House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith’s
    Legal Workforce Act (Bill H.R. 2885)because it accomplishes more than required
    E-Verify for new hires and sets up systems for identifying and firing illegal
    aliens who have obtained jobs with stolen identities. If you want to free fax,
    go to NumbersUSA or please call Washington at 202-224-3121 and ask for
    your U.S. Senator or Representative’s office to urge action on mandatory
    E-Verify.

    We need to hear candidates pledge as President to fully enforce every aspect of
    this legislation.

    Turning off other magnets.

    For the same rationale the jobs magnet should be turned off, so too should all
    the other magnets. One example is in-state tuition (Dream Act) for illegal
    aliens. There are others such as the current privilege of not paying for health
    care in hospitals. The biggest, however, is birthright citizenship: the
    granting of American citizenship to a child merely because he or she was born
    here, even if to illegal alien parents. The later is by far the costliest
    taxpayer support mechanism, as misinterpreted in the 14th Amendment.

    Building an effective, physical fence.

    Effective, physical fencing along the Mexican border (i.e., a wall where that
    is fitting, or a double-fence with a barrier road between the fences where that
    is appropriate) is a well-established and bi-partisan idea. Congress has
    already authorized the building of an effective, physical fence along about 700
    miles of the 2000-mile southern border. Building that 700-mile stretch of fence
    is a good start. An even enhanced policy would build 1,000 miles of effective
    fencing encompassing the entire 800-mile ground border between San Diego and El
    Paso, plus another 200 miles of the most desirable river border in Texas. As a
    practical matter, most experts believe it is not necessary to fence the entire
    2,000-mile southern border, but that theory can be tested over time. If 1,000
    miles of fencing proves insufficient, we can build more.

    And to be effective, fencing must have the appropriate level of Border Patrol
    and detection technology.

    Deploying a check-in/check-out system.

    30-40% of illegal aliens first enters the United States on legal visas and then
    overstay. Although Congress authorized a check-in and check-out system in 1996,
    no President has fully implemented it. It isn’t working and so we need an
    efficient method of tracking foreign nationals. The current US-VISIT system,
    for example, makes virtually no effort to have the 45 million foreign visitors
    each year check out. And Congress exempts most Canadians and Mexicans. The
    problems with US-VISIT can all be fixed without undue expense or genuine
    controversy.

    Enforcing existing deportation laws to perhaps double the effects of current
    enforcement.

    Deportations reduce our illegal alien population directly. They also discourage
    illegal entry into the United States in the first place, and they encourage
    illegal aliens already here to leave voluntarily. As of now, we deport less
    than 4% of the illegal alien population each year (despite 100% of that
    population being legally eligible for deportation). Under current policy, large
    numbers of people who are identified by law enforcement as probable illegal
    aliens are never placed into deportation proceedings. THEY WALK! And large
    numbers of those who are subjected to proceedings and ordered deported abscond
    or are otherwise allowed by the federal government to avoid their deportation
    orders. A President could perhaps double the number of illegal aliens who leave
    the country as a result of existing detection without any change in law by
    Congress by increasing cooperation between local law enforcement and the feds,
    by reducing the opportunities for illegal aliens to abscond after deportation
    orders and by requesting that Congress provide more funds for ICE agents,
    immigration judges and detention capacity.

     

    WE
    NEED AN ALERT CONGRESS TO RECOGNIZE ILLEGAL ENTRY AS A FELONY, MAKING
    FOREIGNERS HESITANT BEFORE ARRIVING THROUGH WHATEVER MEANS?  2 to 5 YEARS IMPRISONMENT WOULD BE AN INSTANT
    DETERRENT TO THE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION.

     

    Something is seriously wrong with
    our immigration enforcement, so somebody needs to tell the general public the
    truth for a change? HOW COME THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, ERIC HOLDER AND JANET
    NAPOLITANO CAN PICK AND CHOOSE THE IMMIGRATION LAWS THEY WANT TO ENFORCE? SO WHY IS IT FINE TO INTIMIDATE STATES THAT
    ARE TRYING TO SAVE TAXPAYER MONEY THROUGH INITIATING POLICING LAWS? BUT THEN
    THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DOESN’T PUNISH CALIFORNIA, AND OTHER SOFT LIBERAL
    STATE AUTHORITIES THAT ARE PROHIBITING CITIES FROM MANDATING E-VERIFY. WHEN
    GOVERNORS, MAYORS, POLICE CHIEFS AND OTHER OFFICIALS TAKE IT UPON THEM TO
    UNDERMINE THE LAWS ON THE BOOKS, THIS IS ADVERSE TO THEIR OATHS OF OFFICE. THE
    WASHINGTON DC MAYOR HAS PROHIBITED LAW OFFICERS FROM INQUIRING S PERSONS
    LEGALITY IN THIS COUNTRY, JUST AS CALIFORNIA’S SPECIAL ORDER 40 FOR YEARS AND
    IGNORING THE “RULE OF LAW”.

     

     

    This spreading illegal population
    problem will stop over time and the $113 Billion Dollars, taxpayers spend to
    subsidize these people.

    One Old Vet saying, “Stand next to me
    and you’ll never stand alone.”