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Deportation Stats From Secure Communities Hint at Racial Profiling

Posted August 10, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

The Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, which supposedly targets “high threat” immigrants, has mostly led to the deportation of low-level criminal offenders, as well as the deportation of thousands of non-criminal immigrants, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents released today by several advocacy groups.

The records also suggest that the program may be encouraging some jurisdictions to use racial profiling to increase deportations.

Of the 46,929 immigrants deported through the program from October 2008 until June of this year, roughly 25 percent did not have a criminal record, according to the documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In addition, 79 percent of those deported through Secure Communities were either non-criminals or low-level offenders—a far cry from the program’s purported mission to focus on serious criminals.

The advocacy groups that obtained the documents—the National Day Laborer Organization Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law—held a teleconference this afternoon to discuss their findings. For a quick fact sheet about the documents, click here.

The records released today also showed that some of the 494 jurisdictions participating in Secure Communities have been deporting far more non-criminal immigrants than the national average of 26 percent.

Those statistics suggest that police officers in certain jurisdictions may be profiling suspects according to race or ethnicity, knowing that those detained—whether guilty or innocent—will face deportation.

In Travis, Texas, 82 percent of deportations under Secure Communities were of non-criminals; in St. Lucie, Florida, 79 percent.

And in Maricopa—the Arizona county made infamous by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration raids—54 percent of deportations under the program were of non-criminals. For a list of the counties with the highest numbers of non-criminal deportations under Secure Communities, click here.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not provide a reason for the high number of non-criminal deportations in those areas, according to the advocates releasing the statistics.

As I mentioned in my post earlier today, New York State has already entered into an agreement to institute Secure Communities, and the program is currently in the outreach phase, with immigration officials reaching out to local jurisdictions—including some in Suffolk County—about possible implementation.

An AP article published today included a response from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding the program:

Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said non-criminals still may be people who have failed to show up for deportation hearings, who recently crossed the border illegally or who re-entered the country after deportation. He also said it’s important to remember that more people commit crimes that are considered Level 2 and 3.

Secure Communities is “a beneficial partnership tool for ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies helping to identify, prioritize and remove convicted criminal aliens not only from the communities, but also from the country,” Rocha said.

Here are some quotes about the findings from the advocates who obtained the records:

Pablo Alvarado, the executive director of the National Day Laborer Organization Network

“These records reveal a dangerous trend,” Alvarado said. “This program creates an explosion of Arizona-like enforcement at a time when the results have proven disastrous. Thanks to S-Comm, we face the potential proliferation of racial profiling, distrust of local police, fear, and xenophobia to every zip code in America.”

Sunita Patel, attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights

“S-Comm co-opts local police departments to do ICE’s dirty work at significant cost to community relations and police objectives,” Patel said. “Without full and truthful information about the program’s actual mission and impact, police are operating in the dark. The bottom line is that thrusting police into the business of federal immigration enforcement isn’t good for anyone.”

Bridget Kessler, Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

“ICE is racing forward imposing its S-Comm program on new states and localities every day, without any meaningful dialog or public debate,” Kessler said. “ICE should immediately release the full data that communities need to understand the true costs of the S-Comm program.”

Tags : cardozo, center for constitutional rights, ice, immigration and customs enforcement, national day laborers' organizing network, ndlon, secure communities

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