Illinois Becomes First State to Withdraw from Secure Communities
Illinois became the first state on Wednesday to opt out of the Secure Communities program run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to concerns that it deports too many immigrants guilty of minor offenses rather than serious ones. The controversial program allows state and local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of arrestees during the booking process against a DHS database to search an individual’s criminal and immigration history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified when an immigration violation occurs, such overstaying a visa, even if that individual has not committed a crime.
DHS contends the program is necessary in order to identify, detain, and ultimately deport immigrants convicted of serious crimes. But critics of the program say it has lead to too many unauthorized immigrants who may have committed only minor offenses like driving under the influence or getting a traffic ticket, not just dangerous criminals. In a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Illinois Governor Patt Quinn, echoed those same criticisms by noting that ICE’s own data has shown “less than 20% of those who have been deported from Illinois under the program have never been convicted of a serious crime.”
According to the letter, the decision to terminate Illinois’ participation in the program came after Gov. Quinn moved to suspend the program in November over concerns about its implementation. During that time, he reviewed the data on the program and concluded that given “the conflict between the state purpose of the Secure Communities and the implementation of the program, the (Illinois State Police) will no longer participate” or continue to pass along immigration status information to DHS.
Others within law enforcement have also criticized the program for undermining public safety. In a recent op-ed, San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey said the program violates law enforcement’s “hard-earned trust with immigrant residents” by heightening the fear of deportation. This can lead to victims of domestic violence to suffer in silence or other crime victims “to take justice into their own hands” where everyone’s safety deteriorates.
Immigrant and civil rights advocates such as the National Immigration Forum and the American Civil Liberties Union have long noted that the Secure Communities program contributes to racial profiling. Those suspected of being undocumented immigrants, particularly Latinos, are often targeted by police, they say, under a certain pretext only to arrested, booked and detained to check their immigration status and turned over to ICE agents. Advocates have also raised concerns about the erosion of due process rights. The length of an individual’s detention can exceed 48 hours for offenses as minor as traffic violations and in many instances arrestees may not be able to challenge an ICE detainer even if it was erroneously issued.
Secure Communities among other DHS programs have resulted in the Obama administration deporting more immigrants than President Bush did. In 2010 alone, 392,862 immigrants were removed, mostly for non criminal offenses, compared to 291,060 in 2007. ICE came under criticism in 2009 when one of its former high ranking officials James Pendergraph reportedly told an audience of police chiefs that “If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.”
Despite its flaws, however, federal officials want to spread the program nationwide by 2013 even though many states and locales are either reconsidering or refusing to in it altogether. Washington State was the first state to refuse to join the program and Washington, D.C., along with Illinois, withdrew altogether. Locales like San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia are also looking to opt out amidst complaints that the program “may foster fear and mistrust of local law enforcement officers.”
In recent weeks, President Obama has renewed his call for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill or the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), which would give legal status to high-achieving young undocumented immigrants if they attend college or join the military. Others, including 20 Senate Democrats, have simply urged the president to defer deportation for individuals who would be DREAM Act eligible through executive action.
To date, President Obama has resisted those pleas. At recent Town hall, he said those kinds of deferrals are only used in “special circumstances where you have immigrants to this country who are fleeing persecution in their countries, or there is some emergency situation in their native land that required them to come to the United States” not “because they were looking for economic opportunity.”
Check out this video from PBS for more information about the Secure Communities program.