Secure Communities Agreements Canceled, Participation Still Required

WASHINGTON -- Activists are outraged over a Friday announcement from the Department of Homeland Security that it will move ahead with its controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, even if states do not agree to participate.

"Today’s announcement confirms [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]’s status as a rogue agency," Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer's Organizing Network and a vocal critic of Secure Communities, said in a statement. "The recent actions constitute a crisis not only for our civil rights but our democracy as a whole. Governments cannot rule by decree."

The government faces a backlash over Secure Communities, a program that allows federal authorities to screen fingerprints of those arrested by local police in order to detect undocumented immigrants. Critics say the program nets large numbers of non-criminal undocumented immigrants and takes focus away from the primary targets of immigration enforcement, violent offenders.

DHS implemented the program in a number of states by asking governors to sign on using memorandums of agreement, which helped DHS move toward its goal of spreading the program nationwide by 2013. Earlier this year, states began to push back against the program, arguing it threatens public safety and passes on enforcement costs to local governments.

The program had originally been referred to as voluntary, with DHS listing instructions for states and local communities to "opt out." But when Illinois and New York terminated their memorandums of agreement with DHS in May and June, the agency confirmed it would continue to use fingerprints taken by local police for immigration enforcement.

In effect, it meant the agreements between state and federal authorities were meaningless. The decision on Friday to stop creating memorandums of agreement canceled them altogether.

"ICE has determined that a [memorandum of agreement] is not required to activate or operate Secure Communities for any jurisdiction," Immigration and Customs Enforcement head John Morton wrote in a letter to governors.

DHS, meanwhile, is attempting to rehabilitate the program in the public eye, announcing it will develop new training to address civil rights concerns and fears over netting victims of domestic violence.

"ICE continues to work with its law enforcement partners across the country to responsibly and effectively implement this federal information sharing capability and plans to reach complete nationwide activation by 2013," Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

Comments

[Libertardo]

12:55 PM on 08/10/2011

"Today’s announcement confirms [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]’s status as a rogue agency," Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer's Organizing Network

Yeah, these 'rogue' agencies are out of control enforcing the law and all. We're not going to take it anymore.

Here's a hint, don't be an illegal law breaker, and then you won't get the business from 'rogue' agencies.

Amateurs.

[BothSidesSuck]

11:33 AM on 08/10/2011

I have a Hispanic surname and am consider to be a "Mexican-American".
This is not how I label myself. I am an American. I am a Veteran.
I have no problem whatsoever with this program.
An arrested individual, innocent or not, is fingerprinted, regardless of race.
Said fingerprints prove the individual to be in the U.S. illegally, buh-bye.
This makes me prejudiced? So be it.
DEPORT THEM ALL, EVERY LAST ONE.

[usma84]

05:00 AM on 08/10/2011

DHS should be eliminated anyway.

[edwcorey]

11:42 AM on 08/09/2011

The DHS is another inept layer of government bureaucracy, brought to us by the so-called small-government Republicans. The 9-11 massacre was imminently avoidable had not our incompetent president and our warring spy agencies not botched it. The DHS has done nothing but cost us money and pissed us off.

[Marisa Stein]

11:18 AM on 08/16/2011

Link to prove it was the republicans, it does say bipartisan so if you have info that says otherwise please share it because I just made you look like a complete fool.

[TexasTreader]

01:05 PM on 08/08/2011

Did I bump my head on something? I can't figure how undocumented immigrants fingerprinted IN JAIL can be considered "non-criminal."

[James Haun]

12:59 PM on 08/08/2011

They are checking fingerprints AFTER someone is arrested - they are not randomly checking people off the street...jeez. finally the fed is doing some enforcement

[MidMom8949]

12:19 PM on 08/16/2011

AH--so you get arrested and you are guilty. I must have misunderstood my junior high school civics class. Good grief.

[James Haun]

01:03 PM on 08/16/2011

no - once you are arrested, you are checked against a database to see if you are here illegally - you are only 'guilty' if you are here illegally...yes, you must have been snoozing during civics class

[vietveter]

07:00 AM on 08/08/2011

There are a lot of LEGALimmigrants

in our country. When do you law enforcement

people decide, AFTER your harassment?

[rda1911a1]

11:16 AM on 08/08/2011

hope and change

[vietveter]

04:44 PM on 08/08/2011

Typical republiCANT

nonanswer!

[Viper1st]

09:40 AM on 08/09/2011

Unfamiliar with U.S. Federal Immigration Laws?

U.S.C. 8 § 1357 : US Code - Section 1357: Powers of immigration officers and employees

(a) Powers without warrant
Any officer or employee of the Service authorized under
regulations prescribed by the Attorney General shall have power
without warrant -
(1) to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien
as to his right to be or to remain in the United States;
(2) to arrest any alien who in his presence or view is entering
or attempting to enter the United States in violation of any law
or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission,
exclusion, expulsion, or removal of aliens, or to arrest any
alien in the United States, if he has reason to believe that the
alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any
such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant
can be obtained for his arrest, but the alien arrested shall be
taken without unnecessary delay for examination before an officer
of the Service having authority to examine aliens as to their
right to enter or remain in the United States;

[vietveter]

10:34 AM on 08/09/2011

Please reread my post; no whwre does it

defend Obama or his police-state tactics.


thank you

[JrayTo]

05:28 AM on 08/08/2011

I am so sick of all these cheeseball fake lovers of democracy...if people who want to undermine and chip away at the constitution, vandalizing it with layers of bias, change laws to favor their own predilections and bias, cut longstanding programs like social security, etc.. and consistently try to chip away at the constitution or vandalize our fundamental rights

...etc..wait a minute....what?

you call yourself a democracy loving american? GTFO already!...move to china or south korea...your propaganda and propensity for a dictatorial regime will be welcome over there. But until you catch that slow boat...quit calling yourself an american.

[JustinP213]

08:50 AM on 08/08/2011

Wow, settle down, jray. Take a valium.

[JrayTo]

10:15 AM on 08/08/2011

cheers...you were being silly and sarcastic. There are so many d*bags on these forums lately, sometimes the line blurs.

[jweider]

09:14 AM on 08/08/2011

It sounds like someones upset because they couldn't get a green card.

[Major Nikon]

02:21 AM on 08/08/2011

The larger question is why isn't DHS demanding the fingerprints of those who knowingly hire and exploit illegal immigrants?

[vietveter]

07:01 AM on 08/08/2011

YES,

THEY ARE THE PROBLEM!

[JustinP213]

08:51 AM on 08/08/2011

Now you're talking, nikon. I am AGAINST illegal immigration. Alas, the majority of them would not come here UNLESS they were reasonably certain that they'd get a job.

[Erik Jay]

07:38 PM on 08/07/2011

I was fortunate as a silly white boy to marry a beautiful black/Native American woman, with whom I have a 32-year-old daughter and three gorgeous grandkids. We split in 1982 but remain great friends. I am now 26 years into a marriage with my beautiful Puerto Rican/Italian wife. Living with the first in both Orange County and SF in the 1970s, I was quickly introduced to DWB (Driving WITH Blacks, in my case).

I often get exasperated with folks in whitebread enclaves like Thousand Oaks, who don't understand why, in South Central, I would rather be on the side of the street with the Crips and Bloods and locals than the side with the LAPD. For one thing, I never got pulled over, illegally searched, or slammed in the kidneys by any black (or brown) "gangbangers." Also -- and this is for knee-jerk ideologues on all sides -- my black wife and I got the same treatment in "liberal" SF as in "conservative" OC.

I actually feel it was a GOOD thing for me to see, first hand, what it's like to be powerless and abused by the authorities. Maybe some gangs should inaugurate some sort of "ride along" program for bigots and authoritarians. Experience is the ONLY teacher for some subjects, and most middle- and upper-class white folks have NO CLUE what it's like to be a minority in America -- though, the way the demographics are moving, they will likely find out before long.

[Socrmom]

09:37 AM on 08/08/2011

And that has what to do with illegal immigration?

[dtairtime]

11:42 AM on 08/08/2011

I'm just guessing as his agner filled rant was wandering all over but here goes.

He thinks any whites will soon face their due when minorities take over.

[Marisa Stein]

11:25 AM on 08/16/2011

actually your wife isn't black she's PR/Italian , second wth does this post have to do with illegal immigration?

PS I really don't give a damn about your personal life.

[Shanghai13]

05:31 PM on 08/07/2011

Great! Ice finally doing something right. How did they muzzle napolitano?

[Homer for real]

01:11 PM on 08/07/2011

...and you thought referring to this administration as the "regime" ..was simply partisan rhetoric? Wake up.. before you lose every shred of your freedom.

[Socrmom]

09:40 AM on 08/08/2011

What freedom is it that you think illegal immigrants would be losing by sharing fingerprints with ICE?

[Homer for real]

02:38 PM on 08/08/2011

Making the assumption that "everyone" is an illegal immigrant, until proven otherwise (forced to "share" fingerprints under threat of incarceration) .. is a violation of your freedom: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures....

...love the way you call it "sharing."

[Jeff Bunting]

01:15 PM on 08/08/2011

ICE was created years before Obama even got elected to the senate.

[AlanBannacheck]

12:02 PM on 08/07/2011

What madness. The department of homeland security has been given a skeleton key here and that is deeply disturbing.

[vietveter]

07:07 AM on 08/08/2011

They would stop IF

the president said

''S T O P ''

[Sipiwe Mutunhu]

11:12 AM on 08/08/2011

Are serious, everything the Pres. does they say no, to. This would be no different!

[Marisa Stein]

11:26 AM on 08/16/2011

how sweet, you actually think he has that power?

[mukarrib]

02:35 AM on 08/07/2011

Why does Obama's administration fight against illegal immigrants suddenly coming under suspicion now. AZ p*ss*d and moaned about Obama's federal interference in the fight against the illegal immigrants. Now Obama's using the finger prints to hunt down illegal aliens and now some of the states don't like that either. Now it's illegal immigrants that are violent offenders that we're hunting.
Gang, if we're going to fight illegal immigration, then fight it. Don't scream they are flooding the country and then hire them for cheap labor then soothe our collective conscience with platitudes they're actually here to steal our welfare benefits.
Don't change the objectives either.
But we do. And that's why this country has this paralysis in fighting illegal immigaration. The average joe demands they be gone but hires them to do his dirty work like cleaning toilets and flipping burgers. We demand they be gone then lament why labor is more expensive without them.

[Homer for real]

01:47 PM on 08/07/2011

AZ's intent was to act where the federal government 'refused to enforce federal law.' Now..., when polls continue to express the opinion that more and more "Independents" are on the side of 'dealing with the problem' ...., and with Obama's reelection campaign heading into full stride..., of course were going to get the heavy handed over reaction from his regime. Rather than admit that those conservative border states have it right... they try to 'mitigate' the backlash from Latinos by casting the wide net. Rather than targeting the 'illegal's they felt this would be a good way to get more information about everyone. Wake up folks!!

[mukarrib]

01:55 AM on 08/08/2011

No, it was ignorant of AZ to interfere with federal immigration law when there was already in place a Federal, state, local program to employ state resources to round up illegal aliens-Maricopa County for one. Brewer and AZ was just trying to grandstand against Obama and make more noise that doesn't accomplish a thing but muck up the waters, that's all.

[herenow12]

11:32 PM on 08/06/2011

Who is going to secure the communities from the republican racism?
Do the people have to take up arms to protect themselves?

[Homer for real]

01:48 PM on 08/07/2011

..ok, you've thrown the race card. Now what? You may want to try calling "wolf" one more time.

[sayber]

10:51 AM on 08/08/2011

herenow

No. Just keep working and paying for all the ILLEGALS ....that's your American duty!

(I know you may not be too with it, so yes, I am being facetious)