Immigration program aimed at criminals deports many with no record. Maria Carmen's 6-year-old daughter last spent a morning at home with her father on a Wednesday in October before he went to work.
On the way to his construction job, he was pulled over for speeding on Eastern Avenue — a routine traffic stop that revealed he was in the country illegally. As a result, and despite his having no prior criminal record, the husband and father within weeks was led by federal agents onto a chartered plane in handcuffs and deported to his native Ecuador. By the time he is eligible to return, his daughter, a U.S. citizen, likely will be in high school. More than 40 percent of the immigrants deported from Maryland under a sweeping federal program called Secure Communities have no prior criminal record — a percentage that puts the state among the top five in the nation for such deportations, an analysis by The Baltimore Sun shows. By contrast, 20 percent of the immigrants deported nationwide under the program have no record, and in Texas the rate is 12 percent.
U.S. Mayor-elect Walsh says he wants Boston to pull out of Secure Communities program - Politics. Serving the African American communities of Greater Boston since 1965. In many ways, 2013 should have been a good year for immigration reform advocates.
The Senate voted in June on immigration reform legislation that would grant the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. temporary legal status and a pathway to citizenship within 13 years. But despite numerous immigration reform overtures, like his offer last week to move on immigration reforms piecemeal, President Obama has run up against the same wall of GOP opposition that has blocked so many of his administration’s initiatives and nearly brought the federal government to a standstill. - Opinion. Why Eva Longoria Is Saddened By Obama's Deportation Policy. Actress and political activist Eva Longoria may have played a prominent role in President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, but she's not entirely satisfied with the way his administration has handled immigration.
In an appearance on HuffPost Live on Tuesday, Longoria criticized the record-level deportations under Obama as well as the Secure Communities program, which requires local law enforcement to share fingerprint data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in order to identify deportable immigrants. The Obama administration has deported roughly 400,000 immigrants per year, far surpassing his predecessors. "It is saddening to see those numbers," Longoria told HuffPost Live's Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. "They are at an all time high. Deportation Vehicles Blocked.
Protestors gathered outside the Philadelphia Immigration and Customs Enforcement office Wednesday.
More than 50 undocumented Philadelphians and their supporters blocked vehicle exits to prevent the local ICE office at 1600 Callowhill St. from transfering immigrant detainees. Police officers could be seen containing the group to allow cars to exit. We must do what we can to right wrongs of Secure Communities program - Editorials. ICE detainer requests under Secure Communities raise Fourth Amendment issues. Immigration detainers sent to local jurisdictions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Secure Communities program raise Fourth Amendment issues, writes a Colorado law professor.
The 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court on a controversial Arizona state law show why that's the case, both when the court struck down key parts, and when it upheld a section of the law as constitutional, says Christopher Lasch, an assistant professor at the University of Denver law school. Hola Arkansas - Eva Longoria calls stop to deportations. Actress and political activist Eva Longoria may have played a prominent role in President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, but she's not entirely satisfied with the way his administration has handled immigration.
In an appearance on HuffPost Live, Longoria criticized the record level deportations under Obama as well as the Secure Communities program, which requires local law enforcement to share fingerprint data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in order to identify deportable immigrants. The Obama administration has deported roughly 400,000 immigrants per year, far surpassing his predecessors. "It is saddening to see those numbers," Longoria told, "They are at an all-time high. Protesters halt downtown traffic with anti-deportation rally. Activists blocked M Street in front of the Fresno County Jail for about five hours on Monday as they protested deportations of undocumented persons by the U.S. government and the county's collaboration with federal immigration officers.
The protesters demanded that Sheriff Margaret Mims stop cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold undocumented arrestees for potential deportation under the Secure Communities program. Some of the marchers carried handmade signs calling for an end to deportations that separate families. The protest was planned as a rally in front of the Fresno County Courthouse by a group called Fresno Immigrant Youth in Action in collaboration with California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance.
Fewer immigrants held in New England for deportation. BOSTON (AP) — Federal officials say the number of immigrants jailed for deportation in New England plunged last year, despite the expansion of a program designed to identify people in the U.S. illegally.
Officials say detentions fell by almost 28 percent in New England, while nationally the number dropped 8 percent. A total of 3,644 immigrants were jailed last fiscal year in the region, down from 5,042 the previous year. Federal officials tell The Boston Globe ( ) the figures reflect an effort to focus specifically on deporting recent border crossers and immigrants with criminal records. Immigrant advocates hailed the shift. Others say that the shift is perplexing because the federal government dramatically expanded the Secure Communities fingerprinting program last year in New England, increasing the ability to detect immigrants here illegally.
Information from: The Boston Globe, Massachusetts Weighs Limiting Local Police Ties To Federal Immigration Officials. Massachusetts is poised to take up a measure that would curb the sharing of information on immigrants between local law enforcement authorities and federal immigration officials. The proposed law, called "An Act To Restore Community Trust In Massachusetts Law Enforcement," more commonly known as "The Massachusetts Trust Act," takes aim at the controversial federal "Secure Communities" program, and could come to a vote this year. The underlying concern that led to the bill is apparently overzealous police officers, reporting undocumented immigrants who were arrested on minor charges to federal immigration agents. According to the Boston Globe, as of December 2012, only 46 percent of the 768 Massachusetts immigrants deported through Secure Communities had criminal records, far below the national average of 76 percent.
That fact contradicts the stated objective of Secure Communities, which is to remove immigrants who pose a serious threat to U.S. society. - Massachusetts State Sen. US: Reject Extreme Immigration Enforcement Bill. (Washington, DC) – The United States House of Representatives should reject an expansive immigration enforcement bill that would worsen existing abuses within the US immigration system.
House Resolution (HR) 2278, the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act (or “SAFE Act”), passed the House Judiciary Committee on June 18, 2013, by a vote of 20 to 15. It now may be referred to another committee or get sent to the full House of Representatives for consideration. “There is nothing ‘safe’ about the SAFE Act,” said Antonio Ginatta, US advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “It will only instill fear in immigrants, making them less likely to call police for help or to report a crime, putting everyone in the community at risk.”
HR 2278 gives state and local law enforcement officers the power to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, and detain unauthorized immigrants for the purposes of enforcing federal immigration laws. Michael Chertoff: Obama’s immigration agenda. The three pillars of immigration reform remain largely what they were in 2007: enforcement, legal immigration and the status of illegal immigrants.
What have we as a nation learned that will help ensure we fix this once and for all? Six years ago, as now, three interest groups were influential in the debate on immigration reform: those troubled that the United States had not achieved control of its borders and immigration flow; business groups unhappy with a cumbersome immigration system that does not satisfy labor markets and imposes complex regulations (including high-tech employers, which were frustrated that foreign graduates with advanced degrees were being forced to leave the United States, and employers in other economic sectors — such as agriculture — that cannot find enough American citizens to fill their labor requirements); and humanitarian groups seeking to prevent the exploitation of undocumented workers and to afford them legal status and a way to citizenship.
Obama is deporting immigrants faster than Bush. Republicans don’t think that’s enough. The GOP is toughening its stance on immigration in its 2012 party platform. But that's partly in response to Obama's own hawkish stance on immigration enforcement. In fact, both parties are now pushing different programs with the same goal: to increase enforcement of laws that target illegal immigration on the local level. (Source: AP) As of July, Obama deported 1.4 million illegal immigrants since the beginning of his administration — that's 1.5 times more immigrants on average than Bush deported every month, according to official numbers from the Department of Homeland Security*.
Reaction to DHS Friday Afternoon Announcement on Secure Communities and Deportation Rates. Calif. Gov. vetoes Trust Act, signs immigrant driver’s licenses bill - Tucson Immigration. For those in Arizona concerned about issues related to immigration, it can be frustrating how difficult it often is to define precisely where our state stands on these issues. On the one hand, Arizona has been a vanguard in the struggle to impose state-legislated anti-immigrant laws, with its passage of SB 1070 in 2010. And the state has spawned some of the most prominent national figures in the fight against Latin American immigration to this country, including former State Sen.
Russell Pearce, Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Obama Policy on Illegal Immigrants Is Challenged by Chicago. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor said he would propose an ordinance that would bar police officers from turning over illegal immigrants to federal agents if the immigrants do not have serious criminal convictions or outstanding criminal warrants. In contrast to the Obama administration’s long-running confrontation with officials in Arizona, who are mostly Republicans, the latest challenge to the president’s immigration policies comes from Mr.
Emanuel, his former chief of staff, and from other Democratic allies in ’s hometown. “If you have no criminal record, being part of a community is not a problem for you,” Mr. Emanuel said, speaking at a high school library in Little Village, a Latino neighborhood. U.S. citizen sues over detention under Secure Communities program. WASHINGTON — A computer specialist is suing the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security after a controversial fingerprint-sharing program incorrectly identified him as an illegal immigrant and authorities ordered him detained in a maximum-security prison.
The lawsuit is the first legal challenge by a U.S. citizen to the Secure Communities program, which the Obama administration has expanded nationwide over the objections of immigration advocacy groups and Democratic governors in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. Under the program, fingerprints obtained when local authorities arrest a suspect are automatically checked against immigration databases as well as FBI criminal databases.
U.S. immigration agents are notified if the results indicate an immigration violation. "Everybody makes mistakes. I've made mine," Makowski, 24, said in a telephone interview Thursday. S-Comm and Stop and Frisk: A Threat to Society, A Letter from ED Abraham Paulos. USDA Says Border Patrol Shouldn’t Be Acting as Interpreters. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “USDA” civil rights office found that the U.S. 'Secure Communities' Goes into Effect: WGBH News. Fight Obama’s anti-immigrant policy – ‘Secure Communities’ Racial Profiling Bill And Secure Communities Intersect. By Hugh McQuaid | May 17, 2012 4:43pm Google(1) Comment | Commenting has expired Posted to: Legal Hugh McQuaid Photo Office of Policy and Management Undersecretary Michael P.
Sheriff Daron Hall announces the end of Davidson County's controversial deportation program, but questions remain. After nearly five years of controversies, bad headlines and a sustained cry of protest from Nashville's immigrant community, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall held a press conference Tuesday morning announcing that his office will no longer participate in the unpopular Immigration and Customs Enforcement program known as 287(g). Hall told reporters that when the city's memorandum of agreement with ICE for 287(g) expires on Oct. 8, his office will not seek renewal of its contract. Report: LA County spends $26 million a year to hold undocumented immigrants under Secure Communities.
Secure Community Program Stays on Target After Three Months. It hasn’t come without hesitation and it hasn’t come without quite a bit of pressure from all angles, but after one quarter of cooperating with the federal government’s Secure Communities program, Chelsea Police indicate that the feds are not overstepping their boundaries and it is making the community more safe. TRUST Act To Limit Secure Communities Heads To California Governor. Green light for Secure Communities. Feds mandate Secure Communities in Mass. Advocates, Lawmakers Protest Local Enforcement Of "Secure Communities" As Obama Administration Orders 'Secure Communities' Immigration Program, New York Pushes Back. "Secure Communities" Program Takes Effect In City, Reaction Mixed. NY1.com Skip to stories Your City, Your News. NYC’s 24-hour newschannel on the web. Time Warner Cable.
The power of you ™ 3:14 pm 66º Twitter NY1.com en Español. Young illegal immigrants coming out. The Vigilante Eye: ICE Is Flexing Its Muscle to Continue Separating Our Families « Immigration central issue in Democratic primary for Travis sheriff. The Cardozo Jurist The Cardozo Jurist. Is California the Next Secure Communities Battleground? Homeland Security budget includes money for ‘nationwide deployment’ of Secure Communities. Global News Service - News and Press Release Distribution. Federal Biometric ID Program “Secure Communities” Expands to its 27th State. DHS Expands Controversial Secure Communities Program. Policy changes urge discretion, spark review of pending deportation cases. Call the White House on S-COMM! END IT, DON’T MEND IT! Secure Communities, Immigration Enforcement Initiative, Criticized By Michigan Reformers.
Pablo Alvarado: "Secure Communities:" End it, Don't Mend it. Providencejournal.com. Amnesty International accuses U.S. immigration authorities of bias. Immigrants Stand with Trayvon Martin. The fate of immigrant rights for 2012. U.S. hostile towards illegal aliens, claims human rights report - National Law Enforcement. Secure Communities – THE HISPANIC BLOG. Immigration Enforcement Nets Thousands In Six-Day Operation. Search and Get There Faster.