"InSecure Communities" Is More of the Same Enforcement-Only Immigration Policy

by Dave Bennion

category: Immigration Detention

Published July 14, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT

Tom Barry writes a comprehensive critique of DHS's proposed Secure Communities program, which he predicts "will be a fast-track for the removal of huge numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, most of whom have no history of violent crime" and "will disrupt tens of thousands of families and communities."

DHS states that prioritization is one of its goals, meaning DHS will go after the most dangerous criminals due to its own limited resources.  But those of us working in the field have reason to be skeptical--so far, ICE has been going after the easy targets: people arrested on minor charges or whose charges are later dropped, family members or neighbors of targets who happen to be in the building when ICE conducts a home raid.  Yet we are supposed to believe that making it more efficient for ICE to be notified when local enforcement arrests someone for a traffic violation or shoplifting will not lead to the detention and deportation of those people ... I don't think so.

Barry writes:

The Secure Communities program highlights four fundamental trends in immigration enforcement:

1. Increasing merger of criminal and immigration law enforcement.
2. Rapid expansion of federal/local partnerships in immigration enforcement.
3. Spearheading the use of identification technology across the spectrum of law enforcement agencies.
4. Evolving justifications and mission goals for a crackdown on immigrants, both on the border and in the country's interior—including protecting national security, upholding "rule of law," enforcing immigration law and controlling the border as preconditions for comprehensive reform, and, most recently, securing communities.

These four trends embodied in the Secure Communities program raise concerns about the new directions of immigration enforcement, including the following:

• Categorization of increasing numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, as "criminal aliens" to increase immigrant removals, when most do not represent a threat to public safety.
• Clogging the already overburdened criminal justice system with immigrant prosecutions.
• Loss of community trust in local law enforcement and resulting threat to public safety as police become instruments of immigration enforcement.
• Undermining individual privacy and rights, as government extends data-mining and identity checks without any clear focus either on real national security or public safety threats.
• The deepening and expansion of the immigration enforcement apparatus without any accompanying commitment to immigration policy reform.
• Rapid expansion of the Department of Homeland Security without a clear focus on protecting the country against truly dangerous people.

He also notes that processing people arrested by local law enforcement for DHS detention before they are even determined to be guilty violates the presumption of innocence afforded criminal defendants.  This happens all the time already, and will only increase under InSecure Communities.  This program will also sweep up increasing numbers of immigrants in lawful status who may have lived here for decades.  It will undermine the U Visa program and entrench fear of local law enforcement in immigrant communities.  And I'm afraid that anyone who believes that this program will not increase racial profiling of immigrants by local law enforcement is deluding themselves.