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16 <br />According to ICE, the Secure Communities program is based on three "pillars ": <br />1. Identify criminal aliens through modernized information sharing; <br />2. Prioritize enforcement actions to ensure apprehension and removal of dangerous criminal <br />aliens; and <br />3. Transform criminal alien enforcement processes and systems to achieve lasting results.$ <br />Identify. Under Secure Communities, arrestees' fingerprints are automatically checked against the U.S. <br />Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US- VISIT), and the Automated Biometric <br />Identification System (MENT), in addition to the other databases that are generally checked following an <br />arrest. This fingerprint check allows state and local law enforcement and ICE automatically and <br />immediately to search the databases for an individual's criminal and immigration history. <br />If there is a database "hit," meaning that the arrested person is matched to a record indicating an <br />immigration violation, ICE and the local law- enforcement authorities are automatically notified. ICE has <br />stated that its officers will "evaluate each case to determine the individual's immigration status and take <br />appropriate enforcement action," which may mean, in most cases, that ICE will issue a detainer against <br />the jailed individual.10 A detainer is a request from ICE that the arresting agency notify ICE before it <br />releases the noncitizen so that ICE has the opportunity to decide whether the individual should be <br />transferred to ICE custody rather than released.11 ICE reported that as of August 31, 2009, 82,890 <br />fingerprint submissions resulted in a database match. As a result of Secure Communities, ICE had issued <br />16,631 detainers. 12 <br />Prioritize: According to ICE statements and materials, Secure Communities is intended to target <br />dangerous criminals and those who pose threats to public safety. Accordingly, ICE initially based action <br />on an individual hit on the following priority order: <br />➢ Level 1— Individuals who have been convicted of major drug offenses and violent offenses such <br />as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and kidnapping; <br />➢ Level 2 — Individuals who have been convicted of minor drug offenses and property offenses <br />such as burglary, larceny, fraud, and money laundering; and <br />➢ Level 3 —Individuals who have been convicted of other offenses. 13 <br />It is notable that resisting an officer is a Level 1 crime, and-traffic offenses are included within Level 2. <br />Immigration offenses are Level 3.14 This priority system caused a great deal of concern among <br />immigrant advocates and others who have pointed out that ICE had no articulated mechanism for <br />ensuring that Level 1 offenses were in fact prioritized, or how resources would be allocated among the <br />three levels. Furthermore, Level 3 was exceedingly broad, and could have included large numbers of <br />individuals who do not really fit into ICE's stated goal of targeting dangerous criminals and threats. <br />Finally, the first descriptions of the priority levels stressed convictions, yet fingerprints are checked <br />through Secure Communities at the point of detention, not conviction, and detainers may be issued pre - <br />conviction. <br />As of late summer 2009, ICE's online Secure Communities fact sheet no longer refers to a three -level <br />prioritization system. Rather, the updated fact sheet refers to a "risk -based approach" that prioritizes <br />