SEATTLE — When the governor’s office declined last year to make a unilateral decision on behalf of all the state’s sheriffs, it fell to each individually to activate a federal program that uses fingerprint analysis to identify illegal immigrants in county jails, the so-called Secure Communities ini
tiative.
Now, as more than a dozen of Washington’s 39 counties are participating, the state’s largest immigrant advocacy group and its allies are lobbying against the program statewide.
But some involved sheriffs, especially from smaller counties, said the U.S. Immigration and Custom
s Enforcement program is simply another way to make certain people with criminal records are properly screened.
“It’s not uncommon for us to have somebody claim to be someone they’re not,” said Franklin County Sheriff Richard Lathim. “It’s just another layer of security.”
The pushback against Secure Communities is nationwide, as the program evolves, with its final shape uncertain. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that communities will not have an option of whether to join when the program becomes mandatory by 2013.
Immigrant right groups say Secure Communities can discourage immigrants from reporting crimes and can lead to the deportation of people who haven’t been convicted of anything. Advocates have gone on the offensive in the past year, publishing internal documents through records requests, lobbying lawmakers, and setting up community groups.
“We need an immigration system that’s dealing with immigration. There are a lot of mechanisms in place for people who are serious criminals. They can be tracked now,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, the state’s biggest immigrant advocacy group. Her group has met with many of the sheriffs making the decision on whether to activate the program. In Yakima County, the first county to join, the group brought opponents of Secure Communities to county council meetings after county officials declined to meet with them.
In June, ICE tweaked the program’s guidelines to address some concerns. A new policy directs ICE officers and attorneys to use appropriate discretion to make sure victims and witnesses to crimes are not put into deportation proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s office is also taking a closer look at the program.
Still, the governors of Massachusetts, Illinois and New York have said their states will not participate.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s office, citing ICE statistics, said that one-quarter of the people who were deported after being flagged by Secure Communities had committed a serious crime, while more than half were “non-criminals.” While Patrick’s office has opposed Secure Communities, it continues to work with ICE on other local- federal agreements.
In Washington, ICE asked Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2009 to make a decision for all the counties. State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said the governor’s office decided in 2010 not to undermine county law enforcement authority, but that the State Patrol would facilitate any jurisdiction that wanted to join the local-federal partnership.
The State Patrol houses the Washington fingerprint database for the counties, but already shares the fingerprints with the FBI. For now, the FBI sends fingerprints from those counties that have opted into the program to ICE, for crossing-checking with its database.
Lathim thinks the new program won’t change much in Franklin County. He said that for the past two decades, immigration officers have checked his jail bookings routinely.
Secure Communities is part of ICE’s efforts to target immigrants with criminal records. The checks of jail bookings have been in place under the Criminal Alien Program.
For a quarter century now, Lathim has been a lawman in eastern Washington. He has seen firsthand the changing demographics of his county — the sharp rise of the Latino immigrant population. The last Census revealed that the county is now majority Latino. Lathim says he’s got a good relationship with the immigrant community.
“I understand the lobbying from different immigrant groups, but what I find frustrating is what they’re saying to immigrants, they’re putting fear out there,” Lathim said.
Lathim said immigrant right groups like to point to data showing that significant percentages of people deported after being flagged don’t have a criminal conviction. He said that counties don’t like to spend money bringing their own charges against detainees if their legal status will lead to deportation anyway.
“OneAmerica throws out this figure like there’s some horrendous injustice being done here,” he said.
But Toby Guevin, a policy manager for OneAmerica, says the impact on the bottom line for counties is yet to be seen. He says that if a person is under an immigration hold in a county jail because of a minor offense flagged by Secure Communities, the person remains there until agents pick them up, which might bring about additional expenses for the county.
“I think that’s at the core we’re saying let’s hold off entering any agreements,” Jayapal said. “ICE shouldn’t push (Secure Communities involvement) until their own investigations are concluded… If you don’t have community trust, you don’t succeed.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
