SECURE COMMUNITIES–DOES IT MAKE US LESS SECURE

Secure Communities is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program to deport felons who have either been convicted of serious felonies in the past or are currently accused of committing such. It operates through the use of biometric evidence, primarily booking fingerprints, which are immediately transmitted to the Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division and the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) of the Department of Homeland Security’s US-VISIT Program.

Within hours of booking DHS can order the local sheriff’s to put a hold on the person for transfer to an immigration facility. Thus even if the District Attorney decides not to charge the individual or if the only charges pressed are misdemeanors or infractions the individual could be deported. DHS says that only felons will be targeted but the hold may be placed before the person is charged.

San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey last week asked California Attorney General Jerry Brown to exclude San Francisco from Secure Communities even though that will mean a loss of Federal Funds. He pointed out that the programs is in direct conflict with San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy under which only those accused of felonies are reported to Federal Authorities. Under Secure Communities all people who are booked will be automatically reported.

Last year the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department reported 2000 aliens to DHS and DHS picked up 1,162 of them. Hennessey says the number will dramatically increase under Secure Communities. Although DHS claims that they will target felons, Hennessey claims that among those that will be reported are those charged with such petty crimes as selling from an ice cream cart without a permit. DHS says they do not have the budget to go after those accused of petty crimes but Congress seems willing to increase DHS’s budget in light of Arizona’s move to criminalize illegal aliens.

One problem with Secure Communities is that it inhibits immigrants from calling the police for help. An immigrant is less likely, for example to report domestic violence, if he/she is afraid that their spouse or significant other will be finger printed and deported shortly after being arrested. Immigrants are less likely to report the gang activities of their neighbor’s children if they are afraid the child will be deported. In the end it may make us less secure and crime less likely to be reported.