Immigration Crackdown: Despite State Concerns, U.S. Presses Ahead with Secure Communities

The federal government's crackdown on unauthorized immigrants expands with this announcement that Secure Communities will be implemented automatically througout the fifty states with or without state approval. The program transfers fingerprint records - gathered by local police and sent via their state police to the FBI, in the Department of Justice, for criminal record checks - on to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the Dapartment of Homeland Security, for checks of immigration status. 


Three governors, in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts recently announced they would withdraw their states from participation. They and other local governments in California and other states have sought to withdraw from Secure Communites data sharing because of the over-use of the program to deport non-criminal, unauthorized immigrants despite the stated purpose of the program to focus on those with serious crimial records. 

Despite State Concerns, U.S. Presses Ahead with Secure Communities | Feet in 2 Worlds: "The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that it is not necessary for each state to sign an agreement (known as a Memorandum Of Understanding or MOA) with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Secure Communities program to operate.

The announcement was made by John Sandweg, counselor to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, in a conference call with community organizations from across the country. Along with the call, DHS sent a letter signed by John Morton, director of ICE, addressed to the governor of Delaware, Jack Markell, dated August 5.

“Once a state or local law enforcement agency voluntarily submits fingerprint data to the federal government, no agreement with the state is legally necessary for one part of the federal government to share it with another part. For this reason, ICE has decided to terminate all existing Secure Communities MOAs,” Morton wrote. ...

According to Laura W. Murphy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the only law with which DHS is able to support their position—The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act—doesn’t authorize the federal government to seize state resources in order to inspect individuals in local custody.

“Three years after initiaiting Secure Communities, DHS changed the rules of the game by putting aside all the agreements it negotiated with the states in good faith. Today’s announcement is the latest in a long line of deceptive acts by DHS and an insult to the governors and state leaders who signed these agreements, that today are worth no more than the paper they are printed on,” said Murphy."