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<br />➢ Mistakes, profiling, discrimination, and litigation. Critics argue that involving local police in
<br />immigration law- enforcement activities is likely to lead to mistakes, racial profiling,
<br />discrimination, and costly litigation. Immigration law is extremely complex and subject to
<br />constant change, and documents used to prove immigration status are not uniform. Even with
<br />extensive training and experience, mistakes are very likely, and legal immigrants and U.S.
<br />citizens can be the victims of costly errors.20
<br />➢ Stretching limited resources. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and consequent security concerns
<br />placed a large fiscal burden on already overburdened cities, counties, and states. Respondents
<br />to a 2008 survey of law- enforcement executives ranked resources as their highest agency
<br />concern, followed by staffing.21 New policies encouraging or requiring state and local police
<br />departments to enforce civil immigration law add to the strain on resources. Training, arrest,
<br />processing, detention, and transport all require additional officer time, supervision, and money.
<br />Time spent processing immigration violations is also potentially time away from emergency
<br />responses, criminal investigations, and other critical needs.zz
<br />➢ Immigrants' fear of cooperating with the police makes everyone less safe. The mere
<br />suggestion that local police may have the authority to enforce immigration law sends a chill
<br />through Latino and immigrant communities, resulting in decreased willingness to cooperate
<br />with law enforcement, to report crimes, or to come forward as witnesses. 23 Fear is not limited
<br />to immigrants in violation of immigration law: millions are affected when law- enforcement
<br />officers, who may be untrained in immigration law, stop and question Latinos and other
<br />Americans who "look" or "sound" like they might be foreign. As a result of potential mistakes,
<br />discrimination, and profiling, the trust and communication built between the police and large
<br />segments of the community erode.
<br />Secure Communities: Antidote to 287(g) or More of the Same?
<br />Because Secure Communities is an information- sharing program and does not employ or deputize
<br />agents to enforce immigration laws, it arguably eliminates many of the most controversial aspects of the
<br />287(g) program. In a Secure Communities jurisdiction, local police officers are not deputized by ICE to
<br />initiate and perform immigration- enforcement activities, nor are they authorized to make arrests for
<br />violations of civil immigration law. Consequently, concerns about misapplication of immigration law,
<br />profiling, resource management, and community relations would be expected to decrease. However,
<br />early anecdotal data suggest otherwise.
<br />Prioritization or Casting a Broad Net?
<br />While ICE claims that Secure Communities is intended to identify immigrants who have been convicted
<br />of crimes, there is evidence that persons who have not been convicted of any crime have been targeted
<br />through the program. Although ICE has stated that Secure Communities is focused on violent or
<br />dangerous "Level 1" criminals, there is concern about whether or not such prioritization is taking place.
<br />At an April 2009 hearing, David Venturella, Executive Director of Secure Communities, testified that
<br />from October 2008 through February 2009 ICE had processed more than 117,000 fingerprint
<br />submissions, resulting in the identification of more than 12,000 "criminal aliens," only 862 of whom
<br />(7.2 %) were charged or convicted of Level 1 offenses. Those. 862 had either already been removed or
<br />were in removal proceedings.24 Venturella did not state the nature of the offenses of the remaining
<br />individuals identified through the system, nor whether they had been placed in removal proceedings. A
<br />November 2009 ICE press release announced that, since its inception, Secure Communities had
<br />identified more than 111,000 criminal aliens in local custody, of which more than 11,000 were charged
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