September 15, 2010 | 4:49 PM | By

What do these two federal programs have in common?

FILED UNDER: Police, 287(g), Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, Secure Communities

USA Today

USA Today reports that a federal program that trains and deputizes police to act as immigration agents is losing esteem among police officers. The program, called 287(g), was implemented in 2002, and aimed at catching and deporting criminal aliens from the US. Since then, a series of investigative reports by the New York Times found that the program ended up picking up mostly non-violent criminals and posed civil rights questions. This year, only one new district has signed onto the program so far.

Jim Denney, executive director of the California State Sheriff’s Association, told USA Today that local departments have been turned off by the controversy surrounding the program and the bad relations it creates between police and minority communities:

“‘There has to be a level of trust that both sides enjoy in order to work together,’ he says. ‘There are going to be times when we have to rely on illegal immigrants to conduct an investigation, and they are going to be concerned if the first thing they think is we’re going to round them up.’”

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement told USA Today the economy is partially to blame–police resources can’t be devoted to immigration as budgets are cut. Instead, USA Today says, local departments are turning towards the newer Secure Communities program, which doesn’t require as much by the way of actual resources. It simply shares fingerprints of those arrested with ICE and allows ICE to act on anyone they feel might be in the country illegally.

On Monday’s City Visions on KALW, Angela Chan of the Asian Law Caucus and one of San Francisco’s police commissioners drew parallels between 287(g) and Secure Communities. S-Comm, she said, is the new cool program that’s packaged differently, but essentially does the same thing as its predecessors: cast a wide net to deport as many immigrants as it can. (Listen to the program here.) ICE meanwhile, says that they’re following President Obama’s stated desire to prioritize deporting undocumented immigrants who’ve committed crimes.