Secure Communities 

Congress established the Secure Communities program in the FY2008 appropriations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal unauthorized immigrants from the United States.  The program expands access for state and local law enforcement to the US-VISIT and IDENT databases, and adds biometric fingerprints to the biographical information currently used to identify immigration status. Secure Communities links local and county jails to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), DHS and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) databases so the fingerprints of those who are booked are screened for citizenship status, past criminal violations and deportation orders.   

DHS planned to have a Secure Communities presence in every state and by 2013, to complete implementation in each of the 3,100 state and local jails across the country by the end of 2011.  The program is currently active in 2,101 jurisdictions in 44 states and territories.  

How Secure Communities Works

To establish a Secure Communities program, ICE works with their federal partners (Federal Bureau of Investigations Criminal Justice Information Services and the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator) to connect with the State Identification Bureau. Depending on the state, the State Identification Bureau could reside in the Department of Public Safety, Department of Law Enforcement, Bureau of Investigation, or others.

Once law enforcement arrests and books an individual in a state or local jail, the individual’s fingerprints are taken and sent to the FBI for criminal background checks and to ICE to check against several immigration databases. ICE evaluates each removal case based on a tiered system.

•  Level 1 offenders: Violent Crimes/Major Drug. This category includes immigrants convicted of “aggravated felonies,” as defined in section 101(a)(43) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or two or more crimes each punishable by more than one year, commonly referred to as “felonies.”  Felonies include major drug offenses and violent offenses such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and kidnapping.
•  Level 2 offenders: Property Crimes/Minor Drug. This category includes immigrants  convicted of any felony or three or more crimes each punishable by less than one year, commonly referred to as “misdemeanors.” Misdemeanors include minor drug offenses and property offenses such as burglary, fraud, larceny, and money laundering. 
• Level 3 offenders:  Public Disorder/DUI/all others. This category includes immigrants convicted of crimes punishable by less than one year (other misdemeanor offenses).

Pros and Cons

Proponents say the Secure Communities program improves the accuracy and speed of identifying and removing unauthorized immigrants who have committed crimes. Since biometric information sharing was first activated in 2008, it has helped ICE identify and remove more than 62,000 convicted criminal aliens from the United States. The federal biometric information sharing capability helps overcome previous problems with manual inquiries, forgeries and multiple aliases. The Secure Communities program requires no change to current law enforcement procedures. The computerized biometric system automatically checks federal databases for immigration status after an individual’s fingerprints are taken at booking. Unlike the 287(g) program, Secure Communities does not require law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law. ICE agents maintain all authority in determining an individual’s status and any enforcement action.

Opponents say Secure Communities is detrimental to community policing goals which rely on the trust and support of community members to protect public safety. Believing that local police have become ICE agents, victims or witnesses may not report crimes or testify for fear of deportation.  In addition, in domestic violence cases, police sometimes arrest and fingerprint both parties, putting the domestic violence victim into the system and leading to deportation for a minor offense. Contrary to the ICE objective of focusing on level 1 violent offenders, more deportations are processed for level 2 and 3 misdemeanor offenders.  According to a DHS report,  in FY 2010, only 15% of the 248,000 database hits were charged with level 1 offenses and the remaining 85% offenders were for level 2 and 3 offenses.  

How Secure Communities Differs from 287(g)

In the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Section 287(g) authorizes the federal government to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting select officers to perform federal immigration law enforcement functions. These local law enforcement officers are required to receive appropriate training and are supervised by sworn ICE officers. Under the 287(g) program, some participating police departments check immigration status while performing stops on the streets, while other agencies check immigration status only after someone has been arrested and brought into jail. All 287(g) officers participate in checking immigration status and initiating removal or other immigration proceedings.

In the Secure Communities program, local officers are not trained to carry out immigration law. They submit fingerprints that are regularly collected in the booking process to ICE agents who are responsible for carrying out any further immigration enforcement.

Recent State And Federal Action Related to Secure Communities

The program has suffered from inconsistent reports on its mandatory or voluntary nature.  Some localities were permitted to opt-out, while other requests to opt-out were denied. Originally, Secure Communities operated under Memorandum of Agreements with state agencies. 

In the spring of 2011, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn stopped their states’ participation in Secure Communities. The Governors cited statistics that  the program does not meet its stated goal of focusing on the most violent offenders.   

On June 16, 2011, the White House announced key improvements, including: creating a new training program for state and local law enforcement to incorporate civil rights protections; establishing a task force to identify recommendations to mitigate potential impacts on community policing; and developing a new policy to protect victims of domestic violence and other crimes.

In August, 2011, ICE terminated the agreements, and later released a memo (dated October 2, 2010), that by 2013, the Secure Communities program will be mandatory for all states and jurisdictions. 

Resources

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

National Conference of State Legislatures, “Immigration and State Law Enforcement: Federal 287(g) Cooperative Agreements,” Legisbrief Vol. 17, No. 43, November/December 2009. 

Prepared by:
Ann Morse and Jennifer Arguinzoni
Office of State-Federal Relations
National Conference of State Legislatures
202-624-5400