"Under Secure Communities, individuals arrested by local law enforcement officers are supposed to be fingerprinted and their prints are run through two separate databases — the FBI's criminal database and ICE's IDENT database," the article said.
Secure Communities and the similar 287(g) immigration enforcement program have both come under fire by immigrants rights advocates in Guilford County who say the programs are driven by racial profiling.
As one article in the Independent asks, is Secure Communities just "287(g) with lipstick?" The NC Justice Center has also published an article critical of Secure Communities, quoting Bridget Kessler of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.
“Nationally, 1 in 4 people deported under S-Comm haven’t been convicted of any crime. That ratio jumps to over 40 percent in Durham, Gaston, and in multiple examples across the country,” said Kessler.
Proponents of the program argue it is an important tool for identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants. The Obama administration hopes to have every state participating within the next two years.
For more information, read the full article by Rebekah L. Cowell.
3 comments:
perhaps the reason that the statistics are higher, is because there are more illegal immigrants here.
If everyone is run through the data base , hoe can it be profiling
My understanding is that some people take issue with the fact that the people being run in the database have been arrested — not convicted — and may not even face trial. People can be arrested and charged regardless of evidence, which means police could pick people up they presume to be undocumented, run their information through the system, and find out if they have documentation.
I can contact a few people from immigrants rights groups and ask for a more complete answer if that would be helpful.
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