America's Voice Blog

Posted 12/01/11 at 03:32pm By Pili Tobar

DHS “Secure Communities” Program Needs Serious Scrutiny

secure communitiesOver the past several months, the controversy around DHS’ Secure Communities deportation program has grown exponentially as advocates for immigrants and victims of crime, state governors and law enforcement professionals, and even a DHS-appointed task force arrived at a serious conclusion: the program may claim to improve community safety, but is actually destroying the relationship between police and the immigrant community and undermining public safety as a result.  Despite being billed as a program focused on dangerous criminals, fully 57% of all immigrants deported through Secure Communities as of October 31, 2011 had either been convicted of low-level offenses, such as traffic violations, or had no criminal record at all.

A report published earlier this year by America’s Voice Education Fund, Public Safety on Ice: How Do You Police A Community that Won’t Talk To You?, uses examples from California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington to illustrate the damage that Secure Communities and other programs are having on community policing.  As the report states, “In order to investigate crimes, lock up criminals, and protect the public, police need the trust and cooperation of everyone in their communities.  When immigrants worry that contact with the police could lead to deportation, they are much less likely to report crimes and assist in investigations.  This makes the job of police much harder, and the ‘job’ of criminals much easier. The result: an entire community is less safe.”

Today, the House Immigration Subcommittee is holding a hearing on the program.  But if previous hearings are any indication, the Republican leadership is more likely to use it as a platform to bash the Obama Administration than to review the serious concerns raised by governors, law enforcement executives, and advocates.

The government’s own data proves that Secure Communities is not focused on dangerous criminals, but casts a wide net and ensnares thousands of immigrants who have committed no crime.  When a traffic stop leads to deportation, immigrants get the message loud and clear: avoid the police at all costs.  This makes them far less likely to report crimes they experience or witness, gives criminals a free pass, and hurts us all.

This program needs serious scrutiny, but we’re not going to get it from Reps. Gallegly, King, and Smith.  It’s clear that they are more interested in finding an opportunity to say the words ‘immigrant’ and ‘criminal’ in the same sentence, and bashing the Administration, than finding real solutions to our broken immigration system.

 For more resources, view: 

Posted 09/16/11 at 01:00pm By Mahwish Khan

Former Sacramento Police Chief Venegas Resigns From S-COMM Task Force; Report Shows Flawed Program

Art Venegas, former Sacramento police chiefThe final report from the Task Force studying the controversial Secure Communities (S-COMM) Program was issued this week. The report's release generated its own controversy when several of the panel's members resigned. The first to walk away, former Sacramento, CA Police Chief Arturo Venegas, noted:

While there are many strong components to the report issued today to the Homeland Security Advisory Council by the Task Force, I believe it does not go far enough in making specific and enforceable recommendations that would repair the damaged relationship between immigrants and local police. In good conscience, I am unable to endorse this report and respectfully resign from the Task Force. 

I believe that Secure Communities is a deeply flawed program and that, in its current form, it is undermining public safety. 

Venegas' letter is posted here.

The headline of an article on the Task Force report in the New York Times notes S-COMM "sows mistrust." It also identifies many other problems:

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.

So, in those first few paragraphs describing the Task Force report, we've get these descriptions of Secure Communities:

  • "creating confusion"

  • "unintended negative impact"

  • "eroded public trust"

  • "created tensions with local authorities"

  • Plus, "sows mistrust"

While the report acknowledges much of what is wrong with S-Comm, the recommendations on how to fix it just don’t measure up.  We agree wholeheartedly with Chief Venegas’ assessment:

Unfortunately, the recommendations contained in the task force report fall far short of these principles.  If the scheme recommended by the task force is implemented, individuals simply arrested for minor violations, including traffic violations, will still be put through the system.  The federal government will decide whether they are candidates for deportation, based on enforcement priorities that include people whose only “crime” is a prior civil immigration violation.  I believe that many 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.  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.  Civil immigration enforcement will continue to trump crime control in our communities.  

What’s more, immigrants charged with more serious offenses, but never convicted, have no protection in the task force report.  It seems we are agreeing to turn the long-stand principle of “innocent until proven guilty” on its head for certain groups of people.  If you are an immigrant, and you are charged with a more serious offense, you are “guilty until proven innocent” and you will be referred for deportation.  As an immigrant myself, and as an American, I cannot support that differing standard.

Posted 08/29/11 at 11:52am By Van Le

Alabama Police Not Ready to Enforce New Anti-Immigration Law

alabamaAfter a long, hot summer of protests and lawsuits, Alabama’s tough new immigration law is scheduled to begin taking effect this week.

The law even criminalizes police officers who do not do enough to persecute immigrants; it invites citizens to sue police officers or court officials whom they believe are not properly enforcing the law.  This authoritarian, snitch-on-each-other provision has left Alabama police unprepared to enforce the new law and unprepared to defend themselves from litigation.

“I’m not sure what a police officer is supposed to do,” Gasden City Attorney Roger Kirby told the Gadsden Times this weekend.  The law “is almost an unenforceable act.”

Others have pointed out the many possible unintended consequences of the new legislation.  According to Northport Police Chief Robert Green, those who have a bone to pick with law enforcement officials could easily exploit the law’s sue-a-police-officer provision:

If someone really wants to go after law enforcement, that’s something they can use against us.  It’s one of the major reasons why I strongly opposed the new law.

And as with another program, Secure Communities, using local police officers to double as immigration agents could be harmful to neighborhood safety as a whole.  As Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson commented:

It may alienate the Hispanic community.  We’ve been working very hard with the community, but this may make them hesitate to come forward in reporting crime.  It’s not a good thing for our Hispanic community or our community at large.

And if this what police officers on the ground in charge of keeping the peace are saying, one wonders why zealous anti-immigrant politicians in the state capitol think they know better.

Posted 08/24/11 at 03:48pm By Mahwish Khan

How Secure Communities, ICE and Border Patrol Undermine Public Safety

Safety First Secure CommunitiesLocal and national immigration experts spoke on a call with reporters to relate stories and highlight concerns that Secure Communities and other police-immigration collaboration efforts are destroying the relationship between police and immigrants and making communities across the country less safe.  The federal Secure Communities (S-Comm) program has come under fire from law enforcement, elected officials, and immigrant advocates from across the country for its lack of focus and dangerous impacts on community security.  

As we reported earlier today, the Arlington, Virginia community is scheduled to speak out tonight about this damaging program in the final field hearing of Department of Homeland Security Secure Communities Task Force.  The Task Force is a non-governmental body convened by DHS to examine the program and make recommendations to improve it. 

During the press call, America’s Voice Education Fund (AVEF) released a new report, “Public Safety on ICE: How Do You Police a Community That Won’t Talk to You?”, documenting how immigration enforcement by local police creates a “chilling effect” in immigrant communities, making victims and witnesses of crimes afraid to get help from cops who might deport them. The report includes cases from community advocates and law enforcement officials, demonstrating that the “chilling effect” is being felt in communities around the country as a result of Secure Communities and other policies that blur the distinction between local police and federal immigration agents. Here's one example that Flequer J. Vera-Olcese from the AMOS Project in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared of a recent case.  The example illustrates how pervasive the fear of police is in immigrant communities: 

Fifteen year-old Laura, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and a special-needs child, was kidnapped and raped.  When Laura turned up missing, her parents were afraid to go immediately to the police and instead investigated on their own.  After several days they found Laura, and her mother took her to the police so she could report what had happened.  More than a month later, the family remains afraid of following-up with the police, seesawing through a mix of emotions.  While they want justice for their daughter, they also fear that multiple contacts with the police could lead to the entire family’s deportation.:

Criminals should be afraid of the police. Immigrants should NOT be.  Programs that involve state and local police in immigration enforcement—like S-Comm and 287(g)—are destroying the relationship between police and the immigrant community.  These programs violate the core principles of community policing because they make immigrants afraid of having any contact with the police.  This means immigrants are less likely to report crimes, more criminals go free, and entire communities are less safe. (For more on this, read Lynn Tramonte's blog post, "'Secure Communities' Leads to Insecure Communities".)

Enforcing our point, Alexsa Alonzo, Associate Director of Advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said:

Using local law enforcement efforts as a gateway to immigration enforcement erodes immigrant communities’ trust in the police and local governments and makes us less safe.  Police are perceived as no longer just protecting public safety but also as enforcing immigration law.

“Fear of police in immigrant communities along the U.S.-Canada border is palpable and only heightened by Border Patrol’s increased collaboration with local law enforcement,” said OneAmerica Policy Director, Ada Williams Prince. “Put simply, immigrants stop calling the police during emergencies when they know that Border Patrol will follow close behind.”
 
The call also featured Marisa Vertrees, Social Justice Coordinator of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, who has been working with members of the community to prepare for tonight’s Task Force hearing.  Like earlier field hearings in Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; and Chicago, IL, the Arlington hearing will no doubt demonstrate the level of frustration and fear that Secure Communities has caused in immigrant communities.  Arlington County has been trying to opt-out of the program, but has been unable to do so because of the federal government’s mandate that all cities and states participate.
 
According to Vertrees: “Through our work with the immigrant community, we in the faith community have seen the harm that local enforcement does to the community.  Tonight at the hearing we will bring forward the stories we have heard from families who have been torn apart by overly aggressive enforcement programs, as well as immigrants, both documented and not, who are now afraid to deal with the police and are forced to live in the shadows. And because for the first and only time translation services will be available at the hearing, the Task Force will have the chance to hear these stories from the immigrant community themselves.  We hope that bringing forward what we have seen will convince the administration to end the deeply flawed Secure Communities program.”

Posted 08/23/11 at 08:18am By Web Team

Antonio Diaz Chacon: Albuquerque’s Undocumented Hero

antonio diaz chaconWritten by Mariano Cardoso:

His name is Antonio Diaz Chacon. He’s a resident of New Mexico. He is 23, a hero, and he is undocumented.

Before Monday of last week, Diaz did not know what it felt like to be a hero. That changed when a 6-year-old girl in Albuquerque was abducted as she walked home on a suburban street. The kidnapper pulled her into his van, and Chacon, who has two children of his own, saw what happened. He then risked his life by chasing the kidnapper's van in his own car, forcing the van to crash into a pole.

Antonio rescued the girl as the abductor ran into the desert. The suspect was later arrested by police.

The rhetoric from right-wing news networks will have you believe that a person who is undocumented can't be a hero. To them, an undocumented person is an odd alien species that can high jump over the fence, which runs along the border between U.S. and Mexico. To them, undocumented immigrants are almost like a ninjas...just as dangerous, but not as cool.

Chacon's selfless actions would be hard to categorize as anything but heroic. According to Christina Parker, a spokeswoman for Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas:

As exceptional as his story is, it points to the fact that most undocumented immigrants living in the United States are not criminals. He's more than not a criminal now. He's a hero.

Diaz Chacon has rightfully been accepted as a hero in his town. So many have come out to praise him that Albequerque Mayor Richard Berry declared last Friday was "Antonio Diaz Chacon Day." In an afternoon ceremony, he presented Diaz Chacon with a Spanish-language plaque recognizing his bravery .

Diaz Chacon can acknowledge to being undocumented in New Mexico without fear of being deported, but the same might not be the case had he been living in other states. As Marcela Diaz, with the Santa Fe-based Somos Un Pueblo Unido states:

“The question I would ask is, ‘Would this have played out the same way if we were in Arizona, or Georgia or Alabama?’” she asked.

Posted 08/08/11 at 12:50pm By Mahwish Khan

DHS Makes Controversial Deportation Program (Secure Communities) Mandatory

memoranda of agreement secure communitiesOn Friday, the Department of Homeland Security unilaterally cancelled its Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) on Secure Communities (S-COMM), an immigration enforcement program of the Obama administration that was sold to state governments as a way to identify and deport serious criminals.  Over the past several months, Governor Patrick Quinn (IL), Governor Andrew Cuomo (NY) and Governor Deval Patrick (MA) suspended their involvement with S-COMM, citing data that the program is deporting large numbers of non-criminals and thus negatively impacting public safety. But, evidently, DHS has decided to impose this controversial program nationwide without the consent of elected state and local leaders. 

In response, Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice Education Fund, had this to say:

S-COMM has never worked as promised or intended. Instead of focusing on convicted serious criminals, the program's dragnet has led to the record-breaking deportations of ordinary undocumented immigrants.  Instead of fixing it, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to double-down on it, while dismissing the growing chorus of legitimate concerns being raised by elected officials and law enforcement professionals.

Police officers across the country have made it clear that S-COMM damages relationships between the police and immigrant communities, making it harder for them gather intelligence and solve crimes.  

In addition, this action by the Department of Homeland Security demonstrates a stunning show of disrespect for Governors from the states of Illinois, New York and Massachusetts who recently exercised the "opt-out" provision in their signed “Memoranda of Agreement" with DHS.

S-COMM might help DHS meet its record-breaking deportation goals, but it comes with a huge cost -- to community safety, to federal-state relations and to the trust immigrants have in local police.

Posted 08/05/11 at 05:37pm By Mahwish Khan

DHS Pulls Rank; Breaks Secure Communities Agreements and Undermines Local Law Enforcement

Secure CommunitiesRemember when we reported that DHS was in cahoots with the FBI re: the Secure Communities (S-Comm) Program, and how S-Comm was a stepping stone for a more invasive program that the FBI is calling their “Next Generation Initiative?" We were told then that S-Comm is a mandatory program, and there was no such thing as opting out once a jurisdiction had opted in. But at that point, it was already too late. Members of Congress had issued statements calling for an investigation into the program, maintaining that the Department of Homeland Security was not very transparent re: it’s opt out policies.

For as many as 1200 communities that had initially signed on to participate in the program, there seemed to be a caveat. With DHS, they signed a Memoranda of Agreement. According to the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights:

These “memoranda of agreement” had included provisions stating that states could terminate their participation in the program, as Illinois Governor Pat Quinn had done on May 4.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Massachusett Governor Deval Patrick also opted out.

Today, that right was unilaterally terminated by DHS. This means that states no longer get to opt out, even though they’d signed the agreement with the understanding that they could.

According to Margaret Huang, Executive Director of the Rights Working Group:

This is the United States of America, a democracy.  This is not a tyranny run by ICE.  Local jurisdictions and states have spoken and told the federal government that they do not want Secure Communities destroying their communities, separating families, and encouraging discriminatory police practices such as racial profiling.  For ICE to thumb their nose at these efforts and continue to require this program is unfair, un-American, and without legal basis.

The Secure Communities program has been denounced by community activists, faith groups, politicians, and police officials. In fact, law enforcement leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the program, arguing that their involvement will make community policing harder.  They've explained that the Secure Communities Program has hindered their ability to fight crime. It has damaged the relationship between the police and the community, leaving many cases unreported.

With this latest development, DHS is doing the best possible job of making everyone less safe while undermining Governors Quinn, Cuomo and Patrick. Their attempts to mislead and coerce localities into participating in Secure Communities is inexcusable, and DHS must deal honestly and openly with state and local governments and allow for an opt-out provision.

Posted 06/10/11 at 09:55am By Mahwish Khan

State Rep. Ryan Fattman (R-MA) Isn’t Concerned About Rape Victims Who Are Undocumented

State Rep. Ryan Fattman (R-Massachusetts)Massachusetts State Representative Ryan Fattman thinks that if you’re an undocumented victim of a crime, you better be afraid to come forward – even if you’re an undocumented victim of rape.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports

When asked whether or not he would be concerned about an undocumented woman, beaten and raped, the rep. said that he was not worried about those implications.

“My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward,” Mr. Fattman said. “If you do it the right way, you don’t have to be concerned about these things,” he said referring to obtaining legal immigration status.

A number of Republican state representatives in Massachusetts have been annoyed by Governor Deval Patrick’s decision not to join the federal Secure Communities program, but only Fattman has so far shown how ignorant he is on the issue. Salem News reports:

According to Fattman, "It's time this administration side with taxpayers and public safety officials ... instead of criminals who are also here illegally."

If Fattman had done his research, he'd know that the Secure Communities program doesn’t work. The goal of the program has been to identify dangerous “criminal aliens;” however, so far, the program has mostly captured individuals without criminal records.  By not spending state resources enforcing a program that is exceptionally flawed, Gov. Patrick is siding with taxpayers and public safety officials. In fact, a number of public safety officials have come out against the program. If Fattman's concern for public safety officials or the safety of communities within his state was sincere, he'd know that the Secure Communities program is one to ditch.

But it’s clear that Fattman’s problem is not with "criminal illegal aliens" -- just immigrants.  He firmly believes all immigrants without papers should be deported -- even children of immigrants who came with their parents to the U.S.

Fattman is just the latest GOP State Legislator to make outrageous statements. In March, Kansas State Rep. Virgil Peck’s (R), claimed that one viable solution to the “illegal” immigration problem was to shoot immigrants down like hogs. A month before that, Republican State Senator Scott Beason (AL), thought it appropriate to say it was time to “empty the clip” on immigration. That's some pretty frightening rhetoric from elected officials, isn't it?

Posted 06/07/11 at 05:37pm By Mahwish Khan

MA Governor Latest to Opt Out of Secure Communities; Victory for Community Groups in Key States

Gov. Deval PatrickYesterday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) announced that his state will not participate in the federal government’s failed “Secure Communities” deportation program. Governor Patrick joins Governor Quinn of Illinois and Governor Cuomo of New York in taking a courageous stand against the flawed enforcement program, and others – like California -- seek to find ways out of the agreement.  

But Governors Patrick, Quinn and Cuomo aren’t fighting this battle on their own. They’re responding to calls from their communities to stand up for public safety and protect residents of their states. Grassroots groups have played a vital role in each statewide campaign to end Secure Communities. In Massachusetts, local groups including the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and Centro Presente circulated sign-on letters and lined up testimonies at hearings around the state, laying the groundwork for Governor Patrick’s bold action. In New York, Governor Cuomo’s decision was a response to months of organizing by local groups, including Make the Road New York, the Immigrant Defense Project, the New York Immigration Coalition and the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Leading the way was Illinois, where the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights led a successful campaign to get Governor Quinn to opt out even while they were fighting for the Illinois DREAM Act.  But the movement in the states was and continues to be big – so please add any leaders and organizations we may have missed in the comments section below!

These groups, and anyone who understands immigrant communities, knows that the Secure Communities program has gone way beyond its stated goal of targeting foreign-born individuals convicted of serious crimes. And thanks to the “Uncover the Truth” campaign led by the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Benjamin H. Cardozo School of Law, they have the numbers to back it up.  For example, according to the New York Times:

Official figures from Boston showed that 54 percent of the immigrants deported under the program had no criminal convictions, only civil immigration violations.  Only about one in four deportees under the program had been convicted of a serious crime.

Click here to read more.
Posted 06/02/11 at 03:30pm By Pili Tobar

Community Leaders, Immigration Advocates Commend Gov. Cuomo for Suspending Secure Communities

Gov. CuomoNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that he is suspending his state’s participation in the ineffective Secure Communities deportation program based on concerns over its impact on community policing and public safety. Governor Cuomo explained:

The heart of concern is that the program, conceived of as a method of targeting those who pose the greatest threat to our communities, is in fact having the opposite effect and compromising public safety by deterring witnesses to crime and others from working with law enforcement.

With Gov. Cuomo’s decision, New York joins a number of other states and experts in calling on the federal government to reform or rescind Secure Communities. Until these major concerns are addressed it is likely that many more states, law enforcement officials, and other leaders will continue to speak out and opt out of the program. As the following timeline makes clear, concern over secure communities is growing increasingly and has become louder and clearer in the past few months.

  1. September – October 2010: Communities like Arlington County, VA and San Francisco, CA raise concerns over the Secure Communities Program and seek to opt out of the program.

  2. October 2010 – The Benjamin Cardozo Law School, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network release a study based on data obtained from DHS. The report highlights that ICE has been apprehending and deporting a majority of non-criminal immigrants. Seventy-nine percent had no criminal record “or had been picked up low level offenses, like traffic violations and juvenile mischief.” Nearly one-third (28 percent) of people transferred to ICE custody under the program have been non-criminals, not even charged with a low-level offense.  The report also documents emails that reveal coercive tactics on behalf of DHS to dismiss localities’ concerns about the program’s impact on community policing and force them to participate in the program.

  3. April 2011 – Federal Policymakers Call for Investigation:  Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Ranking Member of the House Immigration Subcommittee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), call for an investigation of Secure Communities. 

  4. May 2011 – CHC Calls for Reform:  The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) calls for a moratorium on Secure Communities pending an evaluation of the program's goals, implementation, and consequences. 

  5. May 2011 – Illinois Terminates its Involvement:  Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn (D-IL) terminates his state’s participation in Secure Communities, noting that “the implementation of the Secure Communities program in Illinois is contrary to the stated purpose

  6. May 2011 – DHS OIG Announces Investigation:  The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will investigate the Secure Communities program.

  7. May 2011 – Law Enforcement Continues to Speak Out Against Program:  Police and law enforcement experts continue to speak out against Secure Communities, become among the loudest and most credible voices in highlighting the problems with the program. 

  8. June 2011 – New York Suspends Involvement in Program: New York Gov. Cuomo suspends his state’s participation in the ineffective Secure Communities deportation program.

Click here to read more.

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