ImmigrationTask force releases Secure Communities report amid internal discord
Last week, a government task force created to offer recommendations on how to fix the controversial Secure Communities immigration program released its findings to a chorus of internal disagreement; the committee recommended that DHS restart Secure Communities and “reintroduce” the program due to its unpopularity among immigration advocates, local residents, as well as state and local officials; as an act of protest, five of the nineteen committee members resigned because they did not agree with the report’s conclusions
Last week, a government task force created to offer recommendations on how to fix the controversial Secure Communities immigration program released its findings to a chorus of internal disagreement.
The committee recommended that DHS restart Secure Communities and “reintroduce” the program due to its unpopularity among immigration advocates, local residents, as well as state and local officials. As an act of protest, five of the nineteen committee members resigned because they did not agree with the report’s conclusions.
Secure Communities was originally designed to deport dangerous illegal immigrants with prior convictions for serious offenses. As part of the program, local police would scan the fingerprints of detained individuals and run them through an FBI and DHS database to determine if they had a criminal history as well as their immigration status.
Critics of the program say that it has been primarily used to deport immigrants who commit minor crimes like traffic violations. As a result several states including New York, Massachusetts, and California have refused to participate in the program.
The task force’s report confirmed the sentiments of critics in finding that the program could have an “unintended negative impact” on immigrant communities and damage police relations. In its investigations, the task force discovered that the bulk of individuals deported under Secure Communities had only committed minor crimes, contrary to DHS’ goal of removing dangerous immigrants.
To help improve the program, the task force recommended that undocumented immigrants with minor offenses be exempted from deportation.
DHS officials publicly made contradictory remarks, when officials initially said Secure Communities was voluntary and would be based on memorandums of understanding. Later, the department declared it was invalidating its memorandums of understandings with states and the program was mandatory, even in states that opted out.
The five members that resigned including all three union members and a retired police chief, who stated that they could not support the report’s final recommendations or disagreed with the committee’s decision making process.
In a letter to Chuck Wexler, the task force’s chairman, Arturo Venegas, the former police chief of Sacramento and the director of the Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative, said the committee’s recommendations fell “far short” of the principles he kept in mind throughout the council.
“I believe that people with minor infractions, such as driving without a license, will still be put into deportation proceedings based on the scheme recommended by the task force,” he wrote. “Immigrants will continue to fear that contact with the police could lead to deportation, crimes will go unreported, and criminals will remain free to prey on others.”
Meanwhile the three union members – Christopher Crane and Monica Beamer of the American Federation of Government Employees and Andrea Zuniga DiBetetto of the AFL-CIO, resigned because of disagreements in how the report was written.
“We entered the [task force] with a true willingness to participate in a collaborative effort,” the three said in a letter. “Unfortunately, throughout the process, it became clear that our perspectives and recommendations were not going to be acknowledged or contained in the report onto which we have been asked to sign.”
In response to the report, Matt Chandler, a DHS spokesman, said the department was reviewing the report and once the recommendations had been finalized would submit them to John Morton, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Chandler added that the committee members who resigned would also have a chance to meet with Morton and discuss their qualms.
