DHS Program to Increase Deportation
By: Gerri L. Elder
Last year, immigration authorities detained nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants and legal residents with green cards in the New York area. This marked a 43 percent rise over the previous fiscal year, according to the New York Post.
Immigration officials attribute the dramatic increase in arrests to increased vigilance by agents, especially on Rikers Island. The number of arrests and immigrants detained is also likely to continue rapidly rising as a new Department of Homeland Security program expands to the area.
"Secure Communities" is the name of the recently announced DHS program. Under the program, local police will have access to suspects' immigration records when they run standard FBI criminal fingerprint checks. When the immigration records are accessed, a computer alert will be sent to immigration authorities.
Five counties in Texas and North Carolina are part of a pilot test of the program. During spring 2009, the Secure Communities program is expected to expand to 45 cities. Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson, said that the program is expected to be launched nationwide within approximately four years.
Rocha said that the program is not solely focused on immigration enforcement. He says that the program is rooted in the interests of public safety and the need for ICE to be able to swiftly deport criminal immigrants.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie Myers said that the new policy of the FBI and ICE sharing immigration information with other law enforcement agencies will help local police departments identify illegal immigrants who use fake identification or Social Security numbers and turn to a life of crime in the United States.
Myers says that the program will revolutionize the process of identifying criminal illegal immigrants who are in police custody or incarcerated.
Janis Rosheuvel, of the immigrant advocacy group Families for Freedom in New York City, had concerns about the new DHS immigrant identification program.
Rosheuvel says that the idea that the Secure Communities program will allow law enforcement to identify and deport dangerous incarcerated criminals is a bit far-fetched. She says that even extremely minor offenses, even simple traffic stops, can subject immigrants to deportation.
She also claims that immigration agents sometimes pose as lawyers when approaching immigrants in order to trick them into revealing their immigration status.
Stephen Morello, a spokesman for the Department of Correction in New York, said that immigration authorities already have access to the records of the 14,000 people currently incarcerated in the city. The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which helps identify and locate criminal immigrants, gives ICE access to those records and immigrants.
According to Morello, approximately 80 percent of the inmates in city jails are awaiting trial. Immigration advocates are concerned that illegal immigrants who are located by ICE can be found not guilty at trial, yet remain behind bars indefinitely.