Rep. Zoe Lofgren To DHS: Secure Communities Investigation Should Start Now

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called on Wednesday for the Department of Homeland Security to immediately investigate whether its officials intentionally misled the public and local lawmakers over an immigration enforcement program.

The program, Secure Communities, allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access the fingerprints that local police share with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fingerprint-sharing effort allows ICE to detect and deport a larger number of undocumented immigrants, and is a central part of the Obama administration's record removal rates over the last two years.

But some state and local officials disagree with the program, arguing it slates too many non-criminal undocumented people for deportation, and forces local police to spend money holding men and women they would otherwise release.

When those governments attempted to leave the program, which DHS referred to as "voluntary" repeatedly until last fall, they were met with resistance from the agency, and then refusal. DHS officials issued a number of contradictory statements, and internal emails suggest they were pushing behind the scenes to keep as many jurisdictions as possible in the program.

DHS eventually said that local jurisdictions could not opt-out of the program -- despite previously releasing steps to do so -- and came up with a new definition for the term "opt-out" altogether. This decision was made verbally to give officials “plausible deniability,” according to an email exchange that was released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by a coalition of anti-Secure Communities groups.

Lofgren initially requested an investigation on April 28 in a letter to top oversight officials at DHS. But the agency responded to her office by stating it was already planning an investigation that would begin months from now, in fiscal year 2012.

In her Thursday letter, Lofgren requested an immediate start to the investigation to determine whether anyone at DHS committed wrongdoings in discussing the "opt-out" issue with local governments.

"An investigation of the Secure Communities program is pressing, and I urge you to begin your review as soon as possible," she wrote.

Lofgren included a letter she received from former DHS contractor Dan Cadman, who served as an ICE Regional Coordinator for Secure Communities. Cadman was fired for writing "several unacceptable emails" that indicated the program was voluntary, according to ICE Director John Morton.

But Cadman claims he was a scapegoat for the agency's confusion over how to administer Secure Communities; Lofgren asked DHS to investigate to determine whether this was the truth.

"It comes down to this: ICE painted itself into a corner and needed someone to blame," Cadman wrote.

Comments

[maximieren]

03:16 PM on 07/06/2011

WTF? Her state has more foreigner gang crime than Asia and Europe combined. And now she is trying to protect the gang members. Does she know there have been countless killings and stabbings and robbers caused by foreign criminals in her state? The poor lady needs to read the crime bulletins sometime.

[spytheweb]

08:20 AM on 05/29/2011

California's going to blow a gasket when E-verify goes nationwide. They can't opt out of that either.

[herenow12]

01:51 PM on 05/19/2011

I say, make Janet Napolitano live in the ICE prisons for a couple of years, till she comes to her senses.

[spytheweb]

11:02 PM on 05/19/2011

If they didn't come here illegally they wouldn't be in a ICE prison.

[ronmexico2]

10:54 AM on 05/19/2011

Please take this interesting survey about Spanish in the US!: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&hl=en&formkey=dDBtc2szSU9lTXpFdkc4OXpISEc1YXc6MA#gid=0

[voyager48]

09:32 AM on 05/19/2011

Earth to Lofgren........ Local Police have always been a amjor part of Immigration policing and NO it was never an option to not share local policing information regarding immigration with the feds!

In 1996, Congress passed two laws intended to undercut the structural integrity of local government sanctuary policies: the Personal Responsibi­lityand Work Opportunit­y Reconcilia­tion Act of 1996 (“Welfare Reform Act”) and the Illegal Immigratio­n Reform and Immigrant Responsibi­lity Act of 1996 (“Immigrat­ion Reform Act”). Section 434 of the Welfare Reform Act and Section 642 of the Immigratio­n Reform Act state that:


“notwithst­anding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law,” no state or local entity may be prohibited or restricted from reporting informatio­n to federal authoritie­s."

By expressly prohibitin­g restraints on communicat­ions with federal officials, the 1996 laws targeted “don’t tell” measures that banned local cooperatio­n with federal authoritie­s. When New York City challenged the constituti­onality of Sections 434 and 642, the Second Circuit upheld the statutes and nullified New York City’s Executive Order 124, which, in many cases, prohibited local officials from providing federal authoritie­s with immigratio­n status informatio­n.

As a result of Sections 434 and 642, the sanctuary movement is currently vulnerable to attacks on the validity of “don’t tell” measures. Scholars have tagged “don’t tell” measures as “obvious targets for express preemption­” given the apparent conflict between “don’t tell” policies and the restrictio­ns in Sections 434 and 642. hence the Second Circuit’s decision to nullify New York City’s Executive Order 124."

[joethejust]

09:07 AM on 05/19/2011

Why no HP stories on all those Obamacare exemptions?

Here's the scam. By giving waivers, "If you like what you have you can keep it", is true. When the waivers run out your company will choose to drop health care insurance thus dumping all those people into "the pool". Once in "the pool" you will never get out. Soon everyone is born in "the pool" and dies in "the pool", cradle to grave, mission accomplished.

Repeal Obamacare.

[joethejust]

08:49 AM on 05/19/2011

" non-criminal undocumented people" Oxymoron. Spin. Spin.

[vinny]

09:05 AM on 05/19/2011

you are simply illiterate, get informed before commenting further.

[noaxe397]

08:37 AM on 05/19/2011

Every word in this story is a complete fabrication.
 
Just ask any conservative and he will tell you this president is doing nothing, NOTHING, to deport illegal immigrants.

[vinny]

08:56 AM on 05/19/2011

but like so many other policy areas, obama says one thing and does another.

[sebackpacker]

08:27 AM on 05/19/2011

This is such a non story.

Undocumented Worker is to Illegal Alien as Undocumented Pharmacist is to Drug Dealer.

[UpNorthGuyWI]

07:32 AM on 05/19/2011

If you are illegal you are a criminal.

[frank day]

07:47 AM on 05/19/2011

Pretty simple really.

[Djelem]

07:58 AM on 05/19/2011

Actually, in this country, if you are a resident, legal, illegal, or citizen you are a criminal. Both parties would chip us and chain us if given a chance.

[Cipo]

08:27 AM on 05/19/2011

Winner, winner; chicken dinner!

[LouGots]

06:52 AM on 05/19/2011

It is not possible to "slate TOO MANY undocumented. . .people for deportation," the proper number being all of them.

[RationalityPlease]

06:44 AM on 05/19/2011

Whether you are frothing on cue like Palov's dogs to eject undocumented workers and documented workers or not, most of you are missing the point:

Thanks to the New Feudal Lords' destruction of the economy, many places are struggling to keep their police departments and jails afloat. They simply want back the right to prioritize--for their own communities' sakes--who they spend their money to arrest and hold.

Myself, I'd rather my local officials didn't turn out violent offenders who pose a very real (rather than imaginary danger) to my community just so they can comply with "Secure Communities".

If you often holler, "States' rights!" in other contexts, gee I wonder why aren't you doing so in this one?

[baldmelon]

06:28 AM on 05/19/2011

crime has dropped to historical low levels, mass media reporting has increased to historical high levels, prison population has jumped to historical highs... our current level of historical increases shows signs of hysteria.
be afraid of everyone especially scary brown people.
in the fifties there was a commie under every rock and behind every bush. in the sixties there were dark people who wanted to steal your sister. in the seventies and eighties the liberals were coming for your government, and so on.
who will be next on the security hit list? sounds like we need to be protected from ourselves.

[UpNorthGuyWI]

07:34 AM on 05/19/2011

Prison population is at historical levels and crime has dropped to historical lows. I see a correlation there that sounds wonderful. Invest in private prisons. Their stock does well.

[Cipo]

08:28 AM on 05/19/2011

That is one of the most vile (and inaccurate) postings that I have read in some time here.

[baldmelon]

02:22 AM on 05/20/2011

and you'll make lots of money until the bed YOU sleep in at your own house is redesignated a "PRISON BED". when everyone is under surveillance and on some sort of house arrest and or in prison, yes the world will be a much much safer place but who will want to live in it?
rightwing authoritarians policing the unwashed masses for the profits of the rich.
sounds like a nightmare to me.

[Foxrocks]

06:00 AM on 05/19/2011

"But some state and local officials disagree with the program, arguing it slates too many non-criminal undocumented people for deportation"

Aren't they all criminals once they cross the border illegally?

[spytheweb]

05:19 AM on 05/19/2011

"But some state and local officials disagree with the program, arguing it slates too many non-criminal undocumented people for deportation, and forces local police to spend money holding men and women they would otherwise release."

Anyone in this country who is here illegally should be deported. Anyone who would have come through a port and not had the proper paperwork would have been turned away. Anyone who has entered this country by not being inspected is a criminal.

Who are these people in government who want to protect illegal aliens? They are government officials who are on big business payrolls. Just like the ones at the federal level who blocked efforts to remove tax breaks for big oil. These people are fighting against America and Americans, who needs Al Qaeda or the Taliban when we have our own government as enemies.