Local Governments Cannot Opt Out of the “Secure Communities” Program

“Secure Communities” is Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s “comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States.” Put into practice, when a person is arrested and routinely fingerprinted, even for a something as routine as a traffic infraction, their fingerprint check is run against a database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. The goal is to discover if that individual has any immigration violations as well, and if so they are often turned over to the custody of ICE. Some communities, including Arlington County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Santa Clara County in California, have voted to opt out of participating in the Secure Communities program. Officials cite that the program can lead to racial profiling. However, because the agreement is between the federal government and state governments, not the local governments, ICE announced last Friday that local leadership cannot opt out of participation. ICE director John Morton announced that he would meet with local leaders to discuss this issue if they wished.


Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100805657.html

http://www.ice.gov/secure_communities/

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