Secure Communities

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December 28, 2011 | 1:56 PM | By

Top five immigration stories of 2011, #3: Secure Communities

Photo by Corey Moore/KPCC

Anti-Secure Communities protesters in Los Angeles, August 15, 2011

The controversy over the federal immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communitieshas been brewing since not long after it was first implemented 2008, during the waning days of the Bush administration. But after a heated back-and-forth between state, local and federal officials over the program as some jurisdictions attempted to withdraw – only to be told they couldn’t – the controversy came to a head this year.

First, in a nutshell, how Secure Communities works: When state or local authorities book someone into a local jail, the person’s fingerprints are electronically submitted to the FBI. These fingerprints are then sent to the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents check them against an immigration records database to determine if the person is deportable (legal residents are also subject to deportation if they have committed certain offenses). The person is then held for deportation by ICE.

Unlike with a similar federal-local partnership known as 287(g), the screening is done pre-conviction, meaning that some people who turn out to be otherwise innocent have landed in the deportation net; some cases have involved domestic violence victims. This has been a sticking point for critics of the program, who say it goes against the Obama administration’s stated goal of focusing on criminals for deportation. Criticism has also come from some law enforcement agencies, state and city officials who complain that because of its nature, the program alienates immigrant communities by undermining trust in police, making policing them more difficult.

Which brings us to this year’s explosive controversy: Several jurisdictions around the country, including the city of San Francisco, began attempting to opt out of the program last year. Many local and state officials had believed that as with 287(g), Secure Communities was optional, as evidenced by a series of internal emails released last spring. After all, federal officials had signed contracts known as Memorandums of Agreement, or MOAs, with state and local officials around the country allowing Secure Communities to be implemented.

Here’s how part of the contract with the California Department of Justice, dated January 23, 2009, reads:

This MOA may be modified at any time by mutual written consent of both parties.

This MOA may remain in effect from the date of signing until it is terminated by either party. Either party, upon written or oral notice to the other party, may terminate the MOA at any time. A termination notice shall be delivered personally or by certified or registered mail and termination shall take effect 30 days after receipt of such notice.

Sounds optional, right? But it isn’t, according to federal officials.

By last summer, the governors of Massachusetts, Illinois and New York had announced plans to withdraw from the program, and California’s state Assembly had passed legislation that would allow the state to renegotiate its Secure Communities contract with Homeland Security, allowing local jurisdictions to opt out.

Then the hammer came down. In August, ICE director John Morton sent out a letter to governors terminating all existing MOAs with the agency regarding Secure Communities. The letter clarified “an issue that has been the subject of substantial confusion,” i.e. that states must participate and have no choice in the matter, according to ICE.

The program has continued to draw harsh criticism, most recently from civil rights advocates angry over U.S. citizens being detained accidentally after being fingerprinted. A recent UC Berkeley Law School report cited as many as 3,600 cases of U.S. citizens having been arrested by ICE as a result of Secure Communities.

The Obama administration continues to support use of Secure Communities, crediting it along with 287(g) in part for continued record deportations, a growing number of which federal officials are counting as removals of people with criminal records. But that’s another story for this week.

Come back tomorrow for top story #2.

FILED UNDER: ICE, Record deportations, Secure Communities, Top five immigration stories of 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
October 19, 2011 | 12:45 PM | By

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.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: ICE, Record deportations, Secure Communities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
October 18, 2011 | 11:53 AM | By

ICE announces another record year for deportations

Photo by olongapowoodcraft/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Federal deportation numbers are out for fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30.

And once again, the Obama administration is announcing that a record number of people have been deported during the past year, surpassing the record that was set during fiscal year 2010.

From the news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

Overall, in FY 2011 ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations removed 396,906 individuals — the largest number in the agency’s history.

Of these, nearly 55 percent or 216,698 of the people removed were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors — an 89 percent increase in the removal of criminals since FY 2008. This includes 1,119 aliens convicted of homicide; 5,848 aliens convicted of sexual offenses; 44,653 aliens convicted of drug related crimes; and 35,927 aliens convicted of driving under the influence.

ICE achieved similar results with regard to other categories prioritized for removal. Ninety percent of all ICE’s removals fell into a priority category and more than two-thirds of the other removals in 2011 were either recent border crossers or repeat immigration violators.

In October of last year, ICE reported there had been 392,862 deportations in fiscal year 2010, setting a record for deportations then. About half those deported had criminal records, some less serious than others.

This year’s announcement comes on the heels of the Obama administration announcing in August that it would review the cases of “low priority” immigrants in deportation proceedings who didn’t have a criminal record, although some of these cases continue moving through the system.

The administration has stood by its position that it will focus on people convicted of criminal offenses for deportation, defending its use of programs like Secure Communities, which allows the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration officials. Critics of the program say it doesn’t work as intended, landing too many non-offenders or people with low-level offenses, such as traffic offenses, in the deportation net.

FILED UNDER: Deportation policy, ICE, Record deportations, Secure Communities
August 26, 2011 | 11:34 AM | By

The scene at an LA immigration protest this week (Video)

Videographer Mae Ryan was at an immigration rally earlier this week outside the federal building in downtown Los Angeles that led to several arrests. The protesters were calling for an end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s controversial Secure Communities enforcement program, to which there has been growing opposition since the federal government canceled state agreements to the program earlier this month, insisting it is mandatory.

Secure Communities allows for the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration authorities. The federal government has defended the practice as a necessary law enforcement tool, while opponents say it alienates immigrant communities from police by casting too wide of a net.

The arrests were made after protesters, among them undocumented college students, allegedly blocked traffic; some blocked a ramp used by immigration buses. Ryan interviewed protesters and counter-protesters, who rallied nearby.

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Secure Communities
August 19, 2011 | 1:58 PM | By

Who is a ‘low priority’ under DHS deportation guidelines?

Photo by davipt/Flickr (Creative Commons)

After yesterday’s announcement from the Department of Homeland Security that it will review some 300,000 cases of immigrants in the deportation pipeline, potentially sparing many from removal, a Obama administration official posting on the White House Blog linked to “common sense guidelines” that will be applied in deciding who goes and who stays.

An excerpt from what was posted by Cecilia Muñoz, White House intergovernmental affairs director:

So DHS, along with the Department of Justice, will be reviewing the current deportation caseload to clear out low-priority cases on a case-by-case basis and make more room to deport people who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk. And they will take steps to keep low-priority cases out of the deportation pipeline in the first place. They will be applying common sense guidelines to make these decisions, like a person’s ties and contributions to the community, their family relationships and military service record.

The link leads back to a June 17 memo from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton that urged agency staff to use prosecutorial discretion in the cases of certain immigrants, particularly those without a criminal record, those who arrived here as minors and those who have served or are connected to the military. From the memo, some of the factors to be considered (bold type added):

When weighing whether an exercise of prosecutorial discretion may be warranted for a given alien, ICE officers, agents, and attorneys should consider all relevant factors, including, but not limited to –

• the agency’s civil immigration enforcement priorities

• the person’s length of presence in the United States, with particular consideration given to presence while in lawful status

• the circumstances of the person’s arrival in the United States and the manner of his or her entry, particularly if the alien came to the United States as a young child

• the person’s pursuit of education in the United States, with particular consideration given to those who have graduated from a U.S. high school or have successfully pursued or are pursuing a college or advanced degrees at a legitimate institution of higher education in the United States

• whether the person, or the person’s immediate relative, has served in the U.S. military reserves, or national guard, with particular consideration given to those who served in combat

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FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Cecilia Muñoz, Department of Homeland Security, Deportation, DHS, Secure Communities
August 18, 2011 | 11:29 AM | By

Backlash over former NCLR official’s defense of Secure Communities

UPDATE: In a new White House blog post, Muñoz goes on to clarify the White House’s deportation policies in light of an announcement this afternoon from DHS that, if it works as planned, should spare many “low priority” potential deportees. She writes:

Today, they announced that they are strengthening their ability to target criminals even further by making sure they are not focusing our resources on deporting people who are low priorities for deportation. This includes individuals such as young people who were brought to this country as small children, and who know no other home. It also includes individuals such as military veterans and the spouses of active-duty military personnel.

More details soon on what the changes announced entail.

Photo by Corey Moore/KPCC

Protesters in Los Angeles, August 15, 2011

A recent Obama administration defense of the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program has drawn a backlash, but this time, it has as much to do with who provided the defense as what was said.

On Tuesday, the White House’s director of intergovernmental affairs Cecilia Muñoz wrote in the White House blog that the Secure Communities program, which allows the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration officials, is central to the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy.

Muñoz added that the program is “the primary reason that the deportation statistics show a dramatic increase in the number of criminals deported from the United States.” Along with it she posted these deportation statistics:

  • There was a greater than 70% increase in the deportation of those with criminal records from FY2008 to FY2010, and a decrease of those without criminal records.
  • Today more than half of all removals are people with criminal records.
  • And among those removed who had no criminal records, more than two thirds were either apprehended as they crossed the border, were recent arrivals, or were repeat violators of immigration law, meaning that they had previously been deported.

It’s not an unfamiliar message, along the same lines as what has been stated by other administration officials. Part of what has caused the backlash is that Muñoz is former vice president of the National Council of La Raza, which advocates for immigrant-friendly policy reforms. Muñoz joined Obama’s staff shortly after he was elected in 2008.

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FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Cecilia Muñoz, Secure Communities
August 17, 2011 | 3:03 PM | By

Does Secure Communities undermine L.A.’s Special Order 40?

Photo courtesy of Will Coley

A camera operator rests on the mock coffin as Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, addresses a Homeland Security panel Monday, August 15, 2011

On Monday night, as protestors and speakers sounded off on the federal government’s Secure Communities immigration enforcement program during a town hall meeting in Los Angeles, one recurring theme involved a local police policy enacted more than three decades ago.

“The trust factor is undermining Special Order 40,” said Marielena Hincapié of the National Immigration Law Center, a legal advocacy organization, to a panel assembled by the Department of Homeland Security to gather input on the controversial fingerprint-sharing program. In the crowd, protesters held a large black mock coffin reading “RIP Special Order 40.”

What is Special Order 40, and how does Secure Communities conflict with it, if it does? And how does Secure Communities compare with 287(g), an older federal-local law enforcement partnership used in jails to identify deportable immigrants? It’s complicated, but the workings of all three are worth a look.

Special Order 40 is a policy enacted by former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates in late 1979 that essentially bars local law officers from enforcing federal immigration laws. Secure Communities, which began rolling out in 2008, allows the fingerprints of people booked into local police jails to be shared with immigration agents. The federal program’s critics have long held that the mandatory partnership undermines trust between immigrant communities and local authorities, potentially impeding police work.

At Special Order 40′s core was an acknowledgement that the cooperation of undocumented immigrants was critical to the department’s “ability to protect and serve the entire community.” From a department memo dated November 27, 1979:

The Department is sensitive to the principle that effective law enforcement depends on a high degree of cooperation between the Department and the public it serves. The Department also recognizes that the Constitution of the United States guarantees equal protection to all persons within its jurisdiction.

In view of those principles, it is the policy of the Los Angeles Police Department that undocumented alien status in itself is not a matter for police action. It is, therefore, incumbent on all employees of this Department to make a personal commitment to equal enforcement of the law and service to the public, regardless of alien status.

Officers were directed that they “shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person.” The order further directed that officers “shall not arrest nor book persons for violation of Title 8, Section 1325 of the United States Immigration Code (Illegal Entry).”

While idea of the order was to foster police cooperation from a fearful and vulnerable population, it has had its vocal critics. Special Order 40 came under fire especially after the 2008 murder of Jamiel Shaw, a black high school football player shot by a Latino gang member who was undocumented.

Enter Secure Communities, which ICE has stated is intended to ferret out deportable criminals. But the program has landed many others in deportation proceedings, among them minor traffic violators and people without a criminal record.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, 287(g), Secure Communities
August 15, 2011 | 3:06 PM | By

Secure Communities opponents protest in L.A.

Photo by Corey Moore/KPCC

Protesters outside Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles, August 15, 2011

KPCC’s Corey Moore snapped this photo today at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in downtown Los Angeles, where about 50 people gathered to protest the controversial federal immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities.

Critics of the program have become more vocal in the last week, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton sent a letter to state governors rescinding the agreements between the federal government and states participating in the fingerprint-sharing program. The governors of three states and various local governments had announced a desire to withdraw from the program, which allows for the fingerprints of people booked at local jails to be shared with immigration officials. ICE officials have said the program is mandatory, and that state and local governments can’t opt out.

The letter sent by Morton to California Gov. Jerry Brown can be viewed here.

Federal immigration officials are holding a town hall meeting in Los Angeles tonight to discuss the program with the public.

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Secure Communities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement