Immigration and Customs Enforcement | A United South Carolina

ICE’s So-Called ‘Secure Communities’ In South Carolina

Posted on November 28, 2011 by scjustice

From The State:

Program criticized nationally is operational in all 46 counties

By NOELLE PHILLIPS

Friday, Nov. 25, 2011

Earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly rolled out a program at Richland County’s jail that allows the agency to search for incarcerated illegal immigrants who also have criminal records.

Since April, the Secure Communities program has led ICE to identify 193 illegal immigrants and deport 25 of them from Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

Statewide, ICE has identified 3,778 illegal immigrants, and 1,025 of them have been deported since the Secure Communities was introduced in the state in 2010, according to reports from the agency.

ICE started the Secure Communities program in 2008 and has slowly been rolling it out across the country. The intent is to catch and deport illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes or are suspects in major crimes.

The program has received criticism from immigrants-rights groups, who have held protests in major cities nationwide. Critics argue that the program leads to distrust between immigrants and police and has allowed the federal government to detain people who are being investigated for minor crimes such as traffic tickets. (more…)

Filed under: Deportation, immigrant community, Law Enforcement, South Carolina | Tagged: Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, Appleseed Legal Justice Center, domestic violence, FBI, Homeland Security, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Richland County, Secure Communities, Tammy Besherse, Temple Black, victims, witnesses | Leave a Comment »

Sheriff Mark Curran: Why I Oppose “Secure Communities”

Posted on October 20, 2011 by scjustice

From Frontline:

October 18, 2011, 7:51 pm ET

Mark Curran, the Republican sheriff of Lake County, Ill., was initially onboard with the Obama administrations immigration program known as Secure Communities: “When you have local, state and federal law enforcement all sharing information, all working together, … that’s when we work best.” After seeing it in action, however, he’s become an outspoken critic. This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted on July 29, 2011.

Why did you decide to take a public position, basically saying you don’t think Secure Communities is a smart decision? …

… My faith comes from Christianity. I’m a Catholic. That’s basically the center upon which I make all decisions. …

I looked at what’s transpired in terms of individual stories. I’ve talked to people that have been here 20 years, have four or five children that are here, came here initially under the guise that they could provide for their family.

As you know, the borders were not enforced, and it was not a secret. You could talk to anybody that was in Mexico at that time, or Latin American countries, that wanted to come into the United States. They would tell you that they knew that they could come here, that they could work, that they could provide for their families. In many instances they did.

There was no, “Excuse me.” There was no attempt to determine citizenship status. That all changed.

When they were done providing for their families, they’d go back at the end of the summer season, in many instances, and come back and forth throughout.

Who are the people you see in your community who are undocumented but who make up part of this community, and who you worry could get swept up under a program like Secure Communities?

I’m worried about the people that have been here for long periods of time, … these people that our country lured into America in many instances, telling them that they could find jobs, jobs that we couldn’t fill — migrant worker jobs; low-wage jobs in restaurants; jobs in landscape. …

Once they’re here, they have been working. They have been providing for their families the best they can. They have been told at some point in time by politicians on both sides of the aisle that there will eventually be a process by which [they] will be able to achieve citizenship. They have had this hope. It’s never happened. (more…)

Filed under: Deportation, immigrant community, Law Enforcement | Tagged: Catholic, Christianity, citizenship status, comprehensive immigration reform, E-Verify, ICE, Illinois, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Lake County, racial profiling, Secure Communities, Waukegan | Leave a Comment »

Deportation Program Sows Mistrust, U.S. Is Told

Posted on September 16, 2011 by scjustice

From The New York Times:

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: September 15, 2011

A task force advising an Obama administration deportation program has sharply criticized immigration officials for creating confusion about its purposes and has found that the program had an “unintended negative impact” on public safety in local communities.

In a report on the program, known as Secure Communities, the task force said that the program had eroded public trust by leading to the detention of many immigrants who had not committed serious crimes, after officials said its aim was to remove “the worst of the worst” immigrant criminals from the United States. The task force report was completed Wednesday.

The report also said that immigration officials had created tensions with local authorities by making inconsistent statements on whether states and cities were required to participate.

In the most significant of its recommendations, the task force said that fingerprint identifications through the program should no longer lead federal agents to deport immigrants arrested by local police officers for minor traffic violations.

The task force, which included law enforcement chiefs from four major cities as well as immigrant advocates and state homeland security officials, urged Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that operates the program, to start over to “reintroduce” it in many places where local opposition had swelled.

The report added to the controversy surrounding the Secure Communities program, a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration by deporting as many as 400,000 foreigners a year. (more…)

Filed under: immigrant community | Tagged: Chuck Wexler, ICE, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, National Immigration Forum, Obama, Secure Communities, task force | Leave a Comment »

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