ImmigrationHitting the reset button on Secure Communities

Last Tuesday law enforcement officials said they anticipate a “reboot” of the controversial immigration enforcement program, Secure Communities, in which police officers are asked to submit fingerprints taken by police to DHS so the individuals stopped by the police can be screened for deportation eligibility. About forty law enforcement officials from groups including the National Sheriffs Association and Fraternal Order of Police, met with President Barack Obama, DHS chief Jeh Johnson, and other administration officials to discuss immigration reform. Obama asked the officials to keep pressure on House Republicans to enact a bill on immigration reform, citing a “window of two, three months to get the ball rolling in the House of Representatives.”

The Huffington Post reportsthat several law enforcement officials across the country have decided no longer to cooperate fully with Secure Communities. Critics argue the program leads to too many low-level criminals and non-criminals being turned over to immigration authorities, and in addition to the cost involved in the process, the program could make witnesses and victims of crime reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement.

Understanding that the Obama administration plans to make changes to immigration enforcement, Austin, Texas, Police Chief Art Acevedo expects “a reboot of Secure Communities.” “I got a sense that what they’re going to do is they’re going to go back, regroup, and they’re going to focus their efforts on what we need to focus on,” he said on a call with reporters, organized by the National Immigration Forum’s Bibles, Badges and Business project. “We didn’t become cops to go chase a nanny that is watching our child, or a farm laborer who is helping us grow our crops. We became cops to go after gang-bangers, MS-13, people who are doing harm to our society.”

Johnson noted in the meeting that he is aware of past issues with Secure Communities. “The secretary was very clear that the mistakes of the past can’t be repeated going forward,” said Robert Haas, police commissioner of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “They have to be very clear and they have to be very precise in terms of what Secure Communities is and what it’s not, and I believe the secretary really believes that this is really an opportunity to make sure it is very clear.”

DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said Johnson will continue “to engage with various members of Congress and stakeholders from all sides of the immigration debate, which represent a diverse set of views and opinions in order to assess areas where we can further align our enforcement policies with our goal of sound law enforcement practice that prioritizes public safety.”

Obama has already ordered immigration officials to focus deportation efforts on undocumented immigrants with high-level criminal backgrounds, and he told law enforcement officials that he was aware of the problems with police taking on immigration duties. “Most of them are not making trouble; most of them are not causing crimes,” he said of undocumented immigrants. “And yet, we put them in this tenuous position and it creates a situation in which your personnel, who have got to go after gang-bangers and need to be going after violent criminals and deal with the whole range of challenges, and who have to cooperate with DHS around our counterterrorism activities — you’ve got to spend time dealing with somebody who is not causing any other trouble other than the fact that they were trying to make a living for their families. That’s just not a good use of our resources. It’s not smart. It doesn’t make sense.”