A report released by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute at UC-Berkeley Law School today recommends that expansion of the controversial Secure Communities program be halted until ICE overhauls the program. Started in 2008, Secure Communities automatically shares the fingerprints of anyone booked in county jails with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE then has the option of asking local authorities to hold an individual they suspect of being in the country illegally, with the idea that agents then have the option of picking the person up and transferring them to federal custody. The stated purpose of the program is to further a new national approach to immigration enforcement–one focused less on the average undocumented immigrant and more on deporting those who commit crimes.
Immigration
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Bay Area community leader facing deportation: documentarian speaks out
By Ben Wang is the Director/Producer of the upcoming documentary film Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story. The film’s website explains that “after serving over 20 years behind bars for a robbery he committed at age 16, Chinese American community leader Eddy Zheng now faces deportation to China, a huge loss to the Bay Area community. Released from prison in 2007, Eddy has dedicated his life to preventing youth violence and delinquency through his work at the Community Youth Center, Community Response Network, and many other SF Bay Area programs and organizations.”
ICE task force slams Secure Communities
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Secure Communities began in 2008, and has since rolled out to 1,300 local jurisdictions nationwide, with plans to be operating in every local community by 2013. The program sends fingerprints of those arrested by local police to a Homeland Security database, where they’re matched against immigration records. If the database recognizes the fingerprints as belonging to a person who may be in the country illegally, ICE has the option to place a hold on that person in the county jail, preventing their release. Then ICE has 48 hours to pick that person up from local custody and transfer them into the deportation system.
Private prison industry boomed post-9/11
The Huffington Post reports that 9/11 has helped spur the recent boom in the private prison industry. According to the piece, since immigration was folded into the mission of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, the number of immigrants detained each year has doubled (to 390,000)–creating a lucrative opportunity for private prisons. And apparently, the industry was not surprised:
What’s the most commonly charged federal crime of 2011?
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According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, charges of illegal reentry into the country have accounted for about 23 percent of federal prosecutions this year–making it the most commonly charged federal crime:
New York pulls out of Secure Communities
In another blow to the Obama administration’s attempt to gain nationwide acceptance for the immigration program Secure Communities, the state of New York pulled out of the program today. Governor Andrew Cuomo explained his reasoning in a press release: “‘There are concerns about the implementation of the program as well as its impact on families, immigrant communities and law enforcement in New York,’ Governor Cuomo said. ‘As a result, New York is suspending its participation in the program.’”
Similarly, Illinois terminated its participation in the program in May, and San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey announced last month that he’ll review immigrants pegged by the program to make sure they’re actually serious criminals. Additionally, the California Assembly passed the TRUST Act last week, which, if it clears the Senate and the governor, will allow counties to opt out of participation in Secure Communities.
Private prisons spend millions on lobbying
Detention Watch Network
On any given day, about 33,000 people are in detention in the US for suspected immigration violations. Increasingly, detaining these individuals is the domain of private prisons. According to a report by the Detention Watch Network, a little less than half of immigration violation suspects are in private facilities. Texas, a general hub for private prisons, has the most immigrants in private custody. (California ranks somewhere in the middle.) According to federal records obtained by the Detention Watch, private prison operators spent $20,432,000 on lobbying federal officials and lawmakers between 1999-2009.
Secure Communities: The controversy escalates
Why does a fingerprint sharing program have so many up in arms?
For about two years, San Francisco has been in a back-and-forth with Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Secure Communities, a controversial finger-print sharing program that’s resulted in the deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants. The program is part of the Obama administration’s efforts to focus immigration enforcement on those undocumented immigrants who commit crimes–a strategy that pundits believe is aimed at gaining support for comprehensive immigration reform by beefing up the President’s reputation as tough on border security. Take this excerpt from President Barack Obama’s speech today in El Paso, Texas:
Now, I know that the increase in deportations has been a source of controversy. But I want to emphasize: we are not doing this haphazardly; we are focusing our limited resources on violent offenders and people convicted of crimes; not families, not folks who are just looking to scrape together an income. As a result, we increased the removal of criminals by 70 percent.
Those opposed to Secure Communities would point out that the program has also resulted in the deportation of a large number of non-criminals. In San Francisco, this issue has inspired the county Sheriff Mike Hennessey to announce that he’ll no longer comply with Secure Communities. Yesterday, I sat down with KALW’s News Director Holly Kernan to talk about the legal issues surrounding Secure Communities–and whether or not local governments can be compelled to participate in the program. Transcript after the jump.