Posted on 07/30/2010 12:07:45 PM PDT by jazusamo
A task force recommended that Colorado institute a federal background check program called Secure Communities, which helps the authorities check an arrested person's immigration history through a government database, for possible deportation.
Now, as Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. weighs whether to use Secure Communities, already in effect in 480 jurisdictions in 27 states, immigrant rights groups have been privately pushing him to reject the program. Critics say it promotes racial profiling by the local police and would undermine trust between immigrants and law enforcement, in a state that has particularly strict immigration laws.
"Secure Communities is an overbroad dragnet that will end up destroying communities and families while driving victims and witnesses underground," said Hans Meyer, policy coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
But officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the federal agency that runs Secure Communities, says the program is shoring up a system that has allowed illegal immigrants with criminal records to escape notice.
"It allows ICE and local law enforcement agencies to know as much as possible about people in local custody without any additional costs or procedural changes by local officers," said Richard Rocha, deputy press secretary for the agency.
Here is a Secure Communities fact sheet, some fire from the left flank, more fire from the left, and earlier Times coverage.
The next step - The Times should demand that Eric Holder sue Janet Napolitano. The basis will be something about the primacy of singing 'Kumbaya' over enforcing the law.
Suggests the Az fight was ginned up by Holder, doesn’t it?
It sure does. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Holder and thugs try to end this program.
Here is what gives. The law enforcement agencies that sign up for and participate in the Secure Communities program are operating under federal law, not state or local law. The problem with Secure Communities is that the feds don’t have the ability to train and certify local law enforcement fast enough, because so many communities have signed on. The demand has skyrocketed. If you need any more proof that it is spectacularly effective, you just look at who is opposing it in Colorado, and how hard they are pushing.
Thanks...I know that Joe Arpaio had a bunch of his deputies trained but don’t remember this program being mentioned. Then it seemed he and his deputies were doing such a good job the feds wanted him to stop though I don’t know the particulars.
Ping!
Every time I hear one of these idiots complain about “racial profiling”, I wonder whether he knows how the waiter at the local Mexican restaurant knows what language to address him in.
Wouldnt a secure community be a place where citizens could live their lives in peace, with no threat from invaders, no monies taken from them to provide for the invaders, without being subject to unwanted cultural influences and suffer a lower quality of living as a result of the invaders?
That sure seems the right definition of a secure community to me and the vast majority in AZ think so too. Then comes the Obama’s, Holder’s, bleeding heart libs, LaRaza, etc., SCOTUS better settle this the correct way, and soon.
Judging by past imcompetence, I figure Bambi & Co sued Ariz without having a clue what laws existed in other states.
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