Orange County NC Website
3 <br />Introduction <br />It is our understanding that "Secure Communities" is a mandatory program of <br />Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and will eventually be in operation in all <br />100 counties in North Carolina as well as in all detention centers nationwide. Since this <br />program requires the cooperation of Orange County law enforcement officials and <br />employees, as well as the use of county facilities and equipment, and could potentially <br />impact the trust between Orange County law enforcement and immigrant communities, <br />it is not unreasonable for the County Commission to request detailed data on who has <br />been taken into ICE custody in exchange as well as making sure other safeguards are <br />in place. <br />What is Secure Communities and How Does it Work? <br />Secure Communities. is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program <br />designed to identify immigrants in U.S. jails who are deportable under immigration law. <br />Under Secure Communities, participating jails submit arrestees' fingerprints not only to <br />criminal databases, but to immigration databases as well; allowing ICE access to <br />information on individuals held in jails. Unlike other partnerships between DHS and local <br />law enforcement, Secure Communities gives ICE a technological, not physical, <br />presence in prisons and jails. No Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) with local law <br />enforcement agencies are required, and no local law enforcement agents are deputized <br />to enforce immigration laws through Secure Communities. <br />As of November 2009, Secure Communities is available in 81 jurisdictions in nine <br />states. ICE plans to have a Secure Communities presence in every state by 2011, and <br />plans to implement Secure Communities in each of the 3,100 state and local jails across <br />the country by 2013. <br />When an individual is booked into a jail, his or her fingerprints are checked <br />against the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program <br />(US- VISIT), and the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), in addition to <br />the other databases that are generally checked following an arrest. This fingerprint <br />check allows state and local law enforcement and ICE automatically and immediately to <br />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 <br />record indicating an immigration violation, ICE and the local law- enforcement authorities <br />are automatically notified. ICE then evaluates each case to determine the individual's <br />immigration status and take appropriate enforcement action. In most cases, ICE will <br />issue a detainer against the jailed individual. A detainer is a request from ICE to the <br />arresting agency to notify ICE before it releases the noncitizen so that ICE has the <br />opportunity to decide whether the individual should be transferred to federal custody <br />rather than released. <br />