Angela Chan

Staff attorney for the Asian Law Caucus and a member of San Francisco's Police Commission.

RECENT POSTS

December 13, 2010 | 11:32 AM | By

What organizers want to know about Secure Communities

Since the federal program Secure Communities started in March 2008, one of the biggest questions around the program has been whether or not it’s optional. As a refresher, Secure Communities hooks up local arrest databases to federal databases. That means, whenever someone’s booked and fingerprinted at a participating local jail, their fingerprint goes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a database there checks whether that person is in their system as a visa violator or as an undocumented immigrant. If ICE thinks they are, they can put a “hold” on the person, which means the jail detains them for 48 hours, giving ICE the chance to pick the person up and presumably, begin deportation proceedings.

The issue of participation is that not all jails want to turn over all this information.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Angela Chan, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secure Communities
October 28, 2010 | 12:26 PM | By

Q&A: Attorney Angela Chan on immigrants and policing

Asian Law Caucus

Today, a group of immigrants rights advocates filed an emergency injunction to obtain Immigration and Customs Enforcement files related to the department’s Secure Communities program.

San Francisco was brought into the program in June. Run through Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the program uses fingerprints collected at local jails to track undocumented immigrants who are accused or convicted of crimes. The program has come under fire from immigrants rights groups, as well as San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and county Sheriff Mike Hennessey for deporting non-criminals and straining the relationship between police and immigrant communities. According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, approximately 26 percent of those deported through the program have been non-criminals and 70 percent have been accused or convicted of low-level offenses. San Francisco has tried to stop participating in the program, but has not been able to opt out so far. Angela Chan, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus and a member of San Francisco’s Police Commission, has been among the city’s critics of Secure Communities. I sat down with Chan in her office earlier this week.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, San Francisco Sheriff's Department, Secure Communities
October 12, 2010 | 3:10 PM | By

Secure Communities: Could SF just ignore ICE?

ICE

Courtesy of ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, has come out and confirmed what had previously been rumored. The Washington Independent reports that Napolitano, in a press conference in DC last week, said the agency doesn’t “consider Secure Communities an opt in/opt out program.”

Secure Communities, as a refresher, is a federal program that’s been growing for the past couple of years. Basically, in any state that chooses to participate, when a person is booked at a local jail, their fingerprints are shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE can then check those fingerprints against their database to try to determine if the person is an undocumented immigrant. If ICE thinks the person is subject to deportation, they can choose to place a hold on that person–which means the jail will keep that person for 48 hours, giving ICE the opportunity to pick them up and begin deportation proceedings. ICE says it’s a great way to get to undocumented immigrants who’re committing crimes in the US. Critics say it’s a sneaky way of using local police to round up undocumented immigrants. And some localities, including San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, want out. (Officials in other counties, like LA–where an estimated fifth of the jail population is undocumented immigrants–are thrilled with the program.)

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Politics, Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, San Francisco, Secure Communities, Sheriff Mike Hennessey
October 1, 2010 | 12:26 PM | By

Is there really no way out of SComm?

That’s what the Washington Post says. Local leaders disagree.

Earlier this week, two counties passed resolutions requesting to opt out of the federal Secure Communities program: Santa Clara, CA and Arlington, VA. And San Francisco has been trying to opt out of the program since before it was implemented in the city back in June. Just as a brief refresher, Secure Communities was initiated in March 2008 as a means of cracking down on “criminal aliens” in the US. The program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says, uses modern technology to locate and apprehend undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. The idea is that when a person is arrested and booked at the county jail, their fingerprints automatically get sent to ICE and therefore ICE has the opportunity to check and see if they’re wanted for crimes, and also subject to deportation. Localities like San Francisco, Washington DC, and now Santa Clara and Arlington have sought to get out of the program. They say Secure Communities, which has consistently been referred to as “voluntary” by the Department of Homeland Security, sours the relationship between immigrant communities and law enforcement, and has the unstated purpose of rounding up undocumented immigrants who are arrested for minor crimes or who are guilty of no crimes at all. (ICE doesn’t see it that way.) Regardless, getting out of the program has been difficult. And an article today in the Washington Post alleges it’s actually impossible, by virtue of the fact that jails already share fingerprints with the FBI:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Politics, Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, San Francisco Sheriff's Department, Secure Communities
September 15, 2010 | 4:49 PM | By

What do these two federal programs have in common?

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:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, 287(g), Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, Secure Communities
September 1, 2010 | 2:53 PM | By

Secure Communities: Is there any way out?

SF Sheriff Mike Hennessey

San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey is continuing his quest to get San Francisco out of the federal Secure Communities program. Yesterday, he sent a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown and the directors of Secure Communities at the Department of Homeland Security informing them (again) that San Francisco wants to opt out. Secure Communities has consistently been called a “voluntary” program. The problem, Hennessey says, is there’s no clear way out.

Secure Communities is part of a nationwide strategy shifting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities towards deporting undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. Each county that participates in the program automatically shares fingerprints of those booked at the county’s jail with ICE. If ICE computers record a match with fingerprints they have in their database, and that individual shows up as having entered the country illegally, ICE can place a 48-hour hold on that person which keeps them at the county jail. ICE can then opt to pick the inmate up and presumably, begin deportation proceedings.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Angela Chan, ICE, Immigration, Secure Communities, Sheriff Mike Hennessey