Potential tool for immigrant crime

[ilbegone]

Editorial in The San Bernardino County Sun

Potential tool for immigrant crime

10/15/2010

While Washington lawmakers remain mired in the seemingly intractable problem of dealing with illegal immigration, the Obama administration has just logged the largest number of deportations in history.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says more than 392,000 illegal immigrants were deported from the United States in fiscal year 2010, which ended Sept. 30.

That's 3,000 more deportations than the previous record, set in 2009.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement attributes the slight increase in deportations to a combination of stepped-up border enforcement and an expansion of the department's Secure Communities program, according to recent news reports.

Secure Communities works by having officials check the immigration status of anyone arrested and booked into jail. Those jailed have their fingerprints checked against immigration records. When a person is determined to be in the country illegally, ICE is alerted.

From there, ICE prioritizes those accused of more serious crimes for deportation. ICE is focused on those who pose a national security or public safety threat.

The Secure Communities program has expanded from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 660, including San Bernardino County. Napolitano wants to expand it to all jurisdictions by 2013.

We acknowledge that Secure Communities is only one tool, and that it is far from perfect. It's also a reminder that immigration reform has a long way to go.

For example, last week in Denver, an illegal immigrant was apparently involved in a high- speed crash that killed a popular community college professor. Brought to Denver by his parents as a child, the man spoke English so well that officers appear to have believed he was a legal resident. Whether he was in the country illegally had also apparently never been questioned during his previous arrests and convictions.

Secure Communities likely wouldn't have flagged him, because its database only contains the fingerprints of those immigrants here on a visa and those illegal immigrants who have already been identified by ICE, officials said.

The limitation underscores the need for Congress to deal with immigration in a comprehensive way.