Immigration Checks Now Allowed On Jail Bookings
It’s called Secure Communities, a program that sends electronic copies of booking fingerprints to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The department compares those prints with their database to see if the suspect is in the country illegally.
ICE could then have local law enforcement hold the suspect while they investigate them. Riverside County Sheriff’s department has worked with ICE in the past but the new program speeds up the process.
“This just makes it electronic so it’s that much quicker and theoretically even someone who’s with us for a short time is going to get checked against the ICE files because their fingerprints are being sent,” said Ray Gregory, a Captain with the Riverside County Sheriff’s department in charge of the Indio and Blythe jails.
Secure Communities is in 150 counties around the nation. San Diego got it last May. San Bernardino County got it last month. Now Riverside County is the latest to get the program. They’ve had it for less than a week.
ICE officials said they don’t have the resources to go after every immigration violator, so they say they’re prioritizing, starting with only the most dangerous criminals like those facing murder, drug or sexual offense charges.
The department said they don’t have the final say on deportation, that’s up to court.
Some question if the program will really keep dangerous people out of our country.
“They’re going to be back anyway it won’t make a difference, it won’t make a difference. It’s just a waste of money,” said Jo Salter, who supports the new program.
Congress gave ICE $200 million to start the program in 2008.
Some fear secure communities will allow law enforcement to book people so they can have their citizenship questioned.
ICE says that’s not the case and some people like Melvena Purcell agree.
“I don’t feel that people should be asked about their citizenship necessarily just at random for no reason but I think that if they are detained for some reason that it’s not reasonable to look into their background a little more to make sure that they should be here and they are law abiding,” says Purcell, a La Quinta resident.
ICE plans secure communities in every state by 2013.
