National League of Cities — Washington
Secure Communities Program Aims To Be Nationwide by 2013

by Mitchel Herckis

In an effort to help local law enforcement identify immigration status of those arrested and booked for crimes, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is rapidly expanding its Secure Communities Initiative. The ultimate goal is for the program to be standard for all local law enforcement, and for the federal government to be able to respond to all matches generated by the program, by 2013.
The Secure Communities Initiative is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that aims to remove undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions from the United States by allowing local law enforcement to ascertain arrested individuals’ legal immigration status through accessing federal databases.

As local governments identify undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions, ICE prioritizes enforcement action to apprehend and remove those individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety.

According to recent statements by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other officials, Secure Communities is not viewed as an “opt-in/opt-out” program for local governments. If a state has agreed to participate, it is unlikely communities will find a way to avoid implementation.

Already active in 685 localities across 33 states, DHS credits the program with much of the success in removing a record 195,000 immigrants with criminal convictions during fiscal year (FY) 2010, which ended September 30.

ICE has been focusing on strategic deployment of the biometric identification systems to jurisdictions that are most impacted by violent crime at the hands of those without legal resident status in this country, and will prioritize the processing of those who pose the greatest threat.

In implementing the program, ICE enters into an agreement with each state government, which includes a timeline for deployment across localities. If a local jurisdiction cannot — or will not — meet its deployment timeline, it must formally notify ICE in writing. This will lead to meetings with both the state and federal government entities to attempt to resolve any issues in the implementation.

Secure Communities began in 2008 when Congress approved the funding to “improve and modernize efforts to identify aliens convicted of a crime, sentenced to imprisonment, and who may be deportable, and remove them from the United States once they are judged deportable.”

Visit http://www.ice.gov/secure_communities to read more about the Secure Communities program, and see a complete list of jurisdictions that participate in the program.

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