No racial profiling, abuse by Secure Communities

81 percent of cases in their database are drawn from just three southwest border states (Arizona, Texas, and California). These states, according to DHS, have only 45 percent of the illegal population. More importantly, illegal aliens in these three states are disproportionately Latino. For example, it is estimated that 94 percent of illegal aliens in Arizona are from Mexico, whereas 62 percent of all illegal aliens are estimated to be Mexican.

  • The presumed ethnic profile of the cases in this database (based on country of nationality) very closely matches the ethnic profile of the population of criminal aliens nationwide and also in the states where most of the SC arrests took place. According to a variety of government and independent sources, the population of criminal aliens nationwide and in Texas, California, and Arizona, where most of the SC arrests in the database took place, is approximately 90 percent Latino, which is nearly identical to the percentage of Latino detainees in the database (93 percent). This undercuts the claims that Secure Communities results in a disproportionate number of Latino arrests.
  • The Warren Institute report suggests that statistics gleaned from the database bolster allegations that the Secure Communities program is having a negative effect on community policing and may be masking illegal racial profiling practices. Neither allegation is supported by information in the database, nor by reputable academic or government studies.
  • Over the course of our analysis it became evident that many of the cases in this database do not relate to the Secure Communities program at all. About 6 percent of the cases were attributable to ICE’s sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, and another large share of arrests took place in jurisdictions where Secure Communities had not yet been activated. This could be due to errors on ICE’s part in fulfilling the data request as required. In our judgment, the Warren Institute authors should have detected the data discrepancies and noted them in their report.
  • We regretfully conclude that this data source is of no value in assessing the Secure Communities program. In our view, ICE has squandered an opportunity to exhibit transparency and shed light on the workings of one of its most important enforcement programs.

    • Part 1 of the CIS look at the Warren Institute report is available here.

    — Read more in Secure Communities by the Numbers, Revisited (pt. 2 of 3): Analyzing the Analysis; and Secure Communities by the Numbers, Revisited (pt. 1 of 3): Analyzing the Analysis