Earlier in the week, I mentioned that Senator Menendez had thrown his support behind Representative Lofgren’s call to investigate the controversial DHS Secure Communities program. I even suggested that it would be great to see the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) follow the Senator’s lead, and sure enough, today the CHC followed through and delivered a letter to the White House calling on the administration to place a moratorium on this program. Immigrant rights advocates and community members had been calling for an end or a modification to this program for some time now, so it was a good maneuver on the part of the CHC to ask this of the Obama administration. It also will force the President to respond in some way to the request on the heels of the recent immigration meeting earlier this week and right before he is scheduled to speak on immigration this coming Tuesday. It’s going to be interesting to see how much of an impact these calls to investigate, modify, and/or end Secure Communities will have.
In Illinois this week, the governor announced that his state would no longer be participating in the Secure Communities program, and today DHS is saying that Illinois’ participation in the program is mandatory. Additionally, today the Illinois House passed the Smart Enforcement Act, allowing counties to decide whether they want to participate and to also offer a cost analysis of the program. The Illinois bill also says that the program can only be used to deport individuals who have been convicted of a crime. Secure Communities has been criticized for catching non-violent undocumented workers in local law enforcement dragnets.
Plenty of confusion exists over the Secure Communities program as Colorlines explains:
“DHS, which once called the program voluntary, has since decided the program is not optional after a series of contradictory public statements and communications to states that tried to exercise their right to opt out. California Rep. Zoe Lofgren called for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and DHS Director John Morton for what she called out-right deception about the program’s implementation.”
Confusion over participation, issues with racial profiling, the sidetracking local police away from crime fighting efforts, and the separation of families have come to define Secure Communities. Should President Obama and DHS ignore the problems with this program and insist that it continue to be implemented as is, gestures such as immigration speeches and immigration meetings will appear to be less genuine.
