Concern Over Secure Communities?

A brief discussion of:

Editorial, Immigration Bait and Switch, The New York Times, Aug. 17, 2010.

In yesterday's NY Times editorial, a chilling statement about the recently discussed Secure Communities program was delivered to Americans.

Again, this program was designed to be a sort of filter in American correctional facilities to obtain and cross-reference inmate fingerprints with immigration databases.  The resulting reference then "red flags" illegal immigrants so that the government can pursue the proper immigration procedures.  Most often, the flagged illegal aliens are faced with removal proceedings.  The Obama administration and Department of Homeland Security representatives have claimed that they are specifically targeting the "worst of the worst."

Although Secure Communities seems sound on its face, many critics are voicing their opinions that it is simply not living up to its intended design.  The Times reports here that just roughly 20% of the illegal immigrants deported as a result of Secure Communities have been level 1 offenders—like drug dealers and rapists.  This means the other approximately 80% have been level 2 and 3 offenders, many of which were being processed for lesser crimes like traffic violations and juvenile mischief. 

The Times reports that a national average of 26% of deportees pursued as a result of Secure Communities had no criminal record at all.  According to this editorial, the program now seems more like "an effort to yoke local police into a broad campaign of civil immigration enforcement, maximizing the detention and deportation of the people whom Mr. Obama says he wants to give a chance to pay their debt to society and earn their right to become Americans."  Id.

Information in this article was obtained courtesy of The New York Times.