August 10, 2010 | 11:08 AM | By

Could applying for a job lead to deportation?

FILED UNDER: Police, Immigration, San Francisco, Secure Communities, Sheriff Mike Hennessey
ice

Courtesy of ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey today brought up a new issue regarding Secure Communities that hasn’t been talked about much to date. He said that while they’re not doing it yet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement now has access to state Department of Justice fingerprint databases. Many, many jobs involve background checks. And anyone, say, applying for a childcare worker position might easily have their fingerprints taken in order to determine if they have a criminal history. Employers might not be checking for the potential employee’s immigration status. But if they send those fingerprints to the California D.O.J. for a check, there’s nothing stopping ICE– “they have the technology,” Hennessey said–from starting to find undocumented immigrants that way as well. What does that mean? An employer, doing a background check, could inadvertently send information to ICE that would lead to that job-seeker’s deportation. Again, it’s not happening yet, but Hennessey said it might be soon. More on Secure Communities later today. I’ll be in touch with ICE on the employee issue and report back.