80+ Organizations Call on FBI to End Facilitation of ICE’S “Se Communities” Deportation Program

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Groups Demand FBI Address Concerns from Governors and Other High Level State and Local Officials that Program Undermines Public Safety

          Today, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and over 80 other civil and immigrant rights organizations sent a letter to the FBI demanding that it end its facilitation of ICE’s Se Communities deportation program (S-Comm).

 

            The letter charges that S-Comm threatens public safety, encourages racial profiling and undermines community policing by turning local police departments into gateways to deportation. Under S-Comm, the FBI takes all fingerprints submitted by local police for criminal background checks and automatically forwards the prints to federal immigration officials, regardless of whether individual has been convicted of a crime or of the severity of the charge. 

 

Aldermen Vote To Ask Guv To Ice ICE – New Haven Independent

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Two weeks after the mayor pushed back on a new federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement program to crack down on illegal immigration, view New Haven’s Board of Aldermen has officially joined the resistance. In a unanimous vote Monday night, check the aldermen called upon Gov. Dannel Malloy to refuse to participate in “Se Communities.” That’s the new ICE program under which the FBI shares fingerprint information of new arrestees with the immigration enforcement agency, which can then request the arrested people be held for possible investigation for immigration violations. The Board of Aldermen’s official resolution calls on Gov. Malloy to deny any such requests, unless the person is “identified as a confirmed match in the FBI’s terrorist screening database or convicted of a serious violent criminal offense.” On Feb. 20, Mayor John DeStefano issued a similar plea to Malloy. “This program undermines everything we have tried to build in our community,” – New Haven Independent 03.06.2012

Bi criticizes Se Communities program – Catholic Culture

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Criticizing the Department of Homeland Security’s Se Communities program, Auxiliary Bi Mitchell Rozanski of Baltimore said that an illegal immigrant should “not be detained until he/she has been convicted of a crime that poses a threat to public safety of immigrant communities and families, rather than at the time of arrest.” Bi Rozanski added: The Church acknowledges the right of governments to control and protect its borders however the human dignity and human rights of undocumented migrants should be respected. Programs like Se Communities as well as overly-aggressive laws such as those passed in states like Alabama and Arizona underscore the need for comprehensive and just immigration reform. Enforcement-only immigration policies will not humanely or effectively fix our nation’s broken immigration system. – Catholic Culture 03.02.2012