Jefferson Parish leads the nation

By Susan Weishar, Ph.D.

Secure Communities is a program of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows state and local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of a person they have booked into a jail against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration databases. If there is a match with fingerprints in an immigration database, ICE is automatically notified, regardless of whether the person has been convicted of any criminal act.

When Secure Communities was launched in 2008, ICE claimed that the program would focus on removing the most dangerous and violent criminals, “the worst of the worst”, including immigrants convicted of major drug crimes and violent offenses such as robbery, rape, and murder. However, Secure Communities data analyzed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and others has revealed that one in four people deported under Secure Communities have not been convicted of any crime, and that 78 percent of those deported either had no criminal convictions or were picked up for low-level offenses such as traffic violations. Instead of focusing on individuals that have committed serious crimes, Secure Communities has become a deportation dragnet that has devastated tens of thousands of immigrant families. ¹

Of the hundreds of local jurisdictions that have signed Memorandums of Agreement with ICE to participate in Secure Communities, ten of the 38 jurisdictions with the highest level of non-criminal deportations² are in the Gulf South States of Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. Jefferson Parish in Louisiana has the dubious distinction of having deported a higher percentage of immigrants with no criminal convictions than any other county in the U.S. during the first 17 months of Secure Communities’ existence.³

Top Jurisdictions in Gulf South with Highest Level of Non-Criminal Deportations

When Secure Communities began, ICE characterized the program as being voluntary and that local jurisdictions could “opt out”. After many misleading and contradictory statements from ICE officials, in October 2010 DHS officials declared that that the program was not voluntary, and that agreements were between the state and the federal government. Although some local jurisdictions continue to oppose the program, by 2013 the point may be moot. By that date all federal criminal and immigration databases will be merged, and choosing not to send fingerprints to ICE may no longer be an option.

As of April 5, 2011, a total of 1,165 jurisdictions in 41 states were considered “activated” jurisdictions of Secure Communities. Below are data from ICE on the number and percent of jurisdictions enrolled in the program in the Gulf South:

Secure Communities Jurisdictions Activated in Gulf South

Of all the many problems that Secure Communities poses to local communities,⁵ perhaps the program’s greatest flaw is how it places local police agencies at the center of immigration enforcement efforts. Since ICE has failed to focus efforts on detaining and removing immigrants convicted of serious crimes identified through Secure Communities fingerprint matches, any arrest in a Secure Communities jurisdiction can lead to an immigrant’s deportation. This severely erodes the trust between police and the community that is so important for truly secure communities.

1. As of February 28, 2011, more than 94,000 persons have been deported under Secure Communities. See ICE Secure Communities IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability Monthly Statistics through February 28, 2011.

2. The data analyzed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and The Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law cover the time period 10/27/08 through 2/28/2011.

3. The list was filtered to include only jurisdictions with “statistically significant data” sets.

4. Level 3 Crimes are low-level crimes and include traffic violations, gambling, and property damage crimes. See ICE Secure Communities Standard Operating Procedures p 9.

5. Advocates have indentified several serious problems with Secure Communities. Since there are no checks on the motives for bringing someone to jail, racial profiling by police intent on seeing immigrants deported becomes more likely under Secure Communities. Because a local jail is asked to hold an immigrant until the conclusion of his/her criminal proceedings when a “hit” occurs with a DHS database, more immigrants are being held for longer periods of time in local jails, with such costs usually falling to the town or county. Secure Communities does not have a statutory mandate, therefore critical oversight, transparency, and accountability have been lacking. From Secure Communities, National Immigration Forum.