New report finds numerous problems with ICE program

For law-enforcement agencies participating in the Secure Communities program, people arrested for everything from drunken driving to serious crimes have their fingerprints checked for immigration violations. / U-T file photo 

 

 

Written by Elizabeth Aguilera

 

Undocumented immigrants often experience racial profiling and are wrongfully arrested and deported without hearings or counsel, problems that also have affected thousands of U.S. citizens, according to a new report from The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley.

The authors of the study, "Secure Communities by the Numbers: An Analysis of Demographics and Due Process," said the majority of people detained through the Secure Communities program face this type of treatment.

“The results are disturbing because they point to a system that is funneling people toward deportation without due process. Based on our findings, we recommend that the Department of Homeland Security suspend the program until the government addresses the issues we identify, particularly wrongful U.S. citizen arrests, potential racial profiling and lack of discretion in detention,” said Aarti Kohli, director of immigration policy at the institute.

In a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the report misleading and inaccurate.
“(It) fails to acknowledge how the program has enhanced public safety or even ICE’s fundamental law-enforcement responsibility to determine who is in this country illegally and who has lawful status,” the statement reads. “Every day, state, local and federal agents and officers question individuals who they believe may be in the commission of an illegal act to ascertain probable cause for an arrest – it is simply core to the job of law enforcement.”

Secure Communities is an ICE program available to municipal law-enforcement agencies. It calls for people who are arrested by participating police and sheriff’s departments to have their fingerprints screened by the Department of Homeland Security for immigration violations.

The program began as a pilot project in select areas where a law-enforcement agency volunteered to participate in the ICE program. So far the program is operating in 1,595 jurisdictions nationwide. Two months ago, the White House said the program would become mandatory nationwide.

In California all 58 counties are active in the program including San Diego. Locally the San Diego and Imperial Counties Sheriff’s Departments use the program, it includes anyone booked into the San Diego County Jail and jails in Vista, Las Colina and Imperial County jail, according to ICE.

Secure Communities has faced growing opposition from immigrant advocacy groups, which complain, among other things, that the program is a dragnet targeting not only criminals but also many undocumented immigrants who are law-abiding and hard-working. They believe the immigrants won’t cooperate with law enforcement on everyday community safety issues for fear they’ll also be detained, fingerprinted and processed for deportation.

ICE and Homeland Security officials have said the top priority of Secure Communities is to boost neighborhood safety by finding illegal immigrants with criminal records and removing them from the country.
One of the main problems with the program, advocates say, is that thousands of U.S. citizens have been also been detained.

“The wrongful arrest of thousands of U.S. citizens demonstrates that, too often, ICE’s protocol is arrest first, investigate second,” said professor Peter L. Markowitz at the Cardozo School of Law, a co-author of the study.

The ICE statement said in cases where a person’s citizenship is in question, it conducts “appropriate follow-up.” The agency also said it takes no further action against people confirmed to be U.S. citizens and does not detain them.

A federal judge in New York has ordered ICE to provide additional documents regarding the program, based on legal filings by a coalition of labor, immigrant and legal advocacy groups.

The Warren Institute’s analysis is based on Secure Communities data already obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by several non-profit groups including the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Day Labor Organizing Network. The analysis is based on a sampling of files of those apprehended by ICE through the program since Oct. 1, 2008, when Secure Communities program began.
The report’s findings include:

• ICE has detained about 3,600 U.S. citizens through the Secure Communities program.
• Latinos make up 93 percent of individuals arrested through Secure Communities, though they account for only 77 percent of the undocumented population in the United States
• Of those arrested through Secure Communities, 52 percent were slated to appear before an immigration judge
• 24 percent of the individuals arrested through Secure Communities who did have an immigration hearing were represented by an attorney, compared with 40 percent for all immigration-court hearings
• Compared with all people detained by Homeland Security, a larger share of those detained through Secure Communities are held in custody (83 percent versus 62 percent)

 

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