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New Website “Deportation Nation” Looks Critically at Immigration Enforcement

Posted June 21, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

A new website and investigative project, Deportation Nation, will look critically at whether more innocent and low-level immigrant offenders are being detained because of the immigration enforcement program Secure Communities.

The Secure Communities program is supposed to focus on serious criminals, but research gathered by Deportation Nation shows that “the vast majority of immigrants deported through Secure Communities committed low-level offenses like trespassing, disorderly conduct and traffic offenses.”

The site, which was created by two graduates of the Columbia University School of Journalism, encourages data sharing and collaboration amongst readers. Just like the government officials over at Secure Communities, right?

While there aren’t any areas in New York State participating in the program, since 2008, more than 220 counties have activated Secure Communities, and the program is slated to go national in 2013. To find out if your county is already on the list, click here.

Here’s more about the project from Deportation Nation:

DeportationNation.org is the home of an independent investigative reporting project that critically examines the increase in detention of innocent and low-level immigrant offenders as a result of enforcement programs mandated to target “dangerous criminal aliens.”

We focus in particular on Secure Communities, a program that relies on police in local jails to enter arrest data into a joint FBI and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) database. ICE officers then decide whether to assume custody of immigrants matched in the system and begin deportation proceedings. The program began in Texas in late 2008, is now in place in 200 counties in 21 states, and is set to be deployed nationwide by 2013.

The government’s data reveals Secure Communities has already strayed from its mandate to prioritize the identification and deportation immigrant “level 1 offenders” who commit felonies such as robbery or murder. During the program’s first year it identified 119,052 criminal aliens, leading to the deportation of 1,191 high level offenders and 14,615 immigrants convicted of lesser offenses.

Image courtesy of Deportation Nation.

Tags : 287g, deportation nation, deportations, secure communities

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