Media Detail
- “Secure Communities” & “English Only” Terminated in NY
- Written June 3, 2011 by Mike Clifford, Public News Service - NY
Public News Service-NY
June 03, 2011
“Secure Communities” & “English Only” Terminated in NY
NEW YORK – New York has made some big moves this week concerning immigrant issues. They include Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to suspend the state’s involvement in “Secure Communities,” a controversial Homeland Security program.
Local immigrant advocates – including Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, director of Long Island Wins – had been calling on Cuomo to follow the lead of Illinois and get New York out of the program, which required the state to send fingerprint data of all arrested persons to immigration authorities. Slutsky contends the program is broken.
“They do end up deporting some felons, but the majority of people deported are not - and that’s why we’re glad that Secure Communities is, for now, off the table in New York.”
Cuomo says he suspended Secure Communities because he needed time to study how it is working in New York.
La Fuente’s Long Island Civic Participation Project has been working to try to increase the number of bilingual law enforcement officers in the area, to make it easier for immigrants to report crimes. But Javier Gallardo, community organizer for La Fuente, says the Secure Communities program worked counter to these efforts.
“Even if we have more bilingual officers, people will say, ‘Well, you know, if I’m a victim of a crime, I won’t call the police even if he speaks Spanish, because he’s going to report me to immigration, and eventually deport me.’”
The latest census shows towns like Hempstead, Freeport and Uniondale have immigrant populations topping 40 percent. And yet, only about five percent of local officers are bilingual, says Gallardo.
Also this week, the upstate town of Jackson repealed a law that required public employees to communicate only in English. Slutsky says Jackson’s four-to-one vote is important, because it ends what she believes was a dangerous law.
“If there’s a tornado, or some kind of disaster here, you’ve got to be able to communicate with everyone. It’s all about public safety. So, it’s important to be able to communicate in more than one language.”
A public safety forum is planned on Long Island to address the need for more bilingual officers. It takes place on Sat., June 18, at 2:00 p.m., at the Hempstead Public Library, Hempstead.
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