Secure Communities is now active in all or part of 44 states. Secure Communities is the Federal program that allows the Federal Government to use local arrest data to deport undocumented immigrants. It is based on biometric data such as fingerprints of arrestees. Close to 120,000 immigrants have been removed from the country using the Secure Communities program. Originally we were told that the program was voluntary. Then we were told that if a state signed a contract with the Federal government local governments could not opt out. Now we are being told that state governments do not have an option and they must participateWhile the original claim was that only felons would be deported the list of those removed include many who were convicted of misdemeanors and others for whom charges were dismissed,

Last week Secure Communities was enacted statewide in Connecticut and Maryland. “Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was ‘deeply disappointed” about the program’s activation, but acknowledged that the city “plays no role in the implementation of the program and that [she has] no control over ICE’s actions.’” The Baltimore City Council condemned the program saying that it promoted “a culture of fear and discourage trust between local law enforcement and immigrant communities throughout the city.” The fear is that immigrants will be less likely to report criminal behavior if if it will result in deportation. This is particularly true in family matters such as domestic violence. A woman might want the beatings to stop but she need’s her husband’s financial support and does not want him deported. Likewise a mother may report her child’s drug use in order to get help for the child but does not want to expose the child or the family, for that matter, to deportation.

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New York and Illinois have withdrawn from Homeland Security’s Secure Communities Program. Under the Secure Communities Program ICE, a division of Homeland Security has a direct computer connection to each county or state to check the immigration status of each person arrested. Its stated goal is to deport noncitizens convicted of serious offenses. But in reality it gives them the chance to deport any noncitizen who is arrested whether or not the person is charged or convicted of any offense.

In Illinois studies showed that 30 per cent of those deported under the program had never been convicted of any crime and only 20 percent had been convicted of a serious crime.

California and Massachusetts are also considering withdrawal from the program.

One problem from the point of view of law enforcement and the immigration community is that Secure Communities inhibits the reporting of crime within the immigrant community. For example, an undocumented immigrant is less likely to report domestic violence if they know that the perpetrator is likely to be deported. Yes, they want the domestic violence to end. Yes, they want the perpetrator to receive treatment. But they don’t want their loved one, who they often depend upon for financial support, to be deported.

San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey is refusing to turn over those charged with minor misdemeanors to Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit.

ICE through its Secure Communities Program obtains the fingerprints of everyone who is arrested and places a detainer on undocumented immigrants.

After former California Attorney General Jerry Brown agreed to join the Secure Communities Program, Sheriff Hennessey and the city of San Francisco attempted to opt out of the program but ICE refused to recognize local attempts to opt out.

While Secure Communities is supposed to provide a method to deport those charged with serious felonies many immigrants charged with misdemeanors and infraction have been deported under the program.

According to Sheriff Hennessey ICE detainers are not mandatory and he is free to ignore them. San Francisco is a Sanctuary City. As part of the Sanctuary City policy city officials are not supposed to cooperate with ICE in the deportation of those charged with misdemeanors. Sheriff Hennessey has developed a compromise between the Sanctuary City policy and ICE’s Secure Communities. He will not comply with the voluntary detainers in so far as they request those charged with minor misdemeanor such as petty theft, jay walking, or driving without a license, but he will comply with detainers when they are for those charged with major misdemeanors such as those dealing with violence, guns, or sex offenses.

It seems to me, that while Sheriff Hennessey is taking a step in the right direction, if the detainers are not mandatory, he has a duty to fully comply with the Sanctuary City policy and not turn over anyone charged with a misdemeanor to ICE.id

San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessy requested that San Francisco opt out of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Secure Communities Program.

Secure Communities is a program under which the fingerprints of everyone arrested in a community are provided to ICE. However under San Francisco’s Sanctuary City ordinance only those immigrants who are charged with felonies, found to have a previous felony or ICE contact in their criminal history are reported. Initially ICE promised that only those charged with felonies would be subject to deportation.

As a study quoted in the New York Times shows nationwide twenty-six per cent of those deported under the program do not have criminal records. In some places the percentage is higher. In Maricopa County, Arizona the percentage is fifty-four per cent and in Travis County Texas it is eighty-two percent. By ICE’s own records seventy-nine percent of those deported either had no criminal record or convictions for minor offenses.

Prior to the June 8th implementation of Secure Communities in San Francisco, ICE and California Attorney General Jerry Brown told Hennessy that there was no way to opt out of the program. But in response to statistics showing that many of the people deported are innocent or are guilty of only minor offenses and ICE has agreed to make the plan voluntary. They have agreed to meet with Hennessy to discuss the city’s objections to the program. As Hennessy has pointed out in the past many immigrants are intimidated by the program and refuse to report criminal activity due to fear of deportation. A wife may not report domestic violence, for example if she knows that her husband may be deported. She want medical help for herself and treatment for her husband but she does not want him to be deported where he will not be able to support her and have contact with their children.

An El Salvadorean citizen residing in San Francisco was seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an illegal alien after he was stopped for making an inadequate stop at a stop sign. When he was stopped the officer asked him for his driver’s license. He did not have one. (Of course it is hard if not impossible for an illegal alien to obtain a driver’s license.) He was then arrested for driving without a license. When his name was placed in the computer it was discovered that while he had no criminal record he had an immigration warrant and he was seized by ICE.

San Francisco is a sanctuary city. Under the Sanctuary Ordinance no city funds can be used to assist in the deportation of a non-citizen. Originally there was an exception for those convicted of a felony. Recently, after the Federal government threatened to arrest juvenile probation officers who were shielding juveniles from deportation the rule was amended to allow the deportation of anyone charged with a felony even if the charges were eventually dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor. But in any case making an improper stop is only a traffic infraction and driving without a license is at most a misdemeanor. Neither should result in a report to ICE or deportation. But someone, probably the police officer apparently violated the Sanctuary Ordinance and reported the poor man who had lived in the city for five years to ICE and he is now facing deportation.

Perhaps the ironic part of the incident is that it occurred on June 2nd. On the eighth ICE’s Secure Communities Program took effect in San Francisco giving it access to all fingerprints taken at the jail allowing for the deportation of any illegal alien even if the person is never charged with a crime or is only charged with an infraction or a misdemeanor.

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.