Undocumented and Undeportable – Citizen Orange

The Obama administration has criticized the GOP’s “attrition through enforcement” immigration policy framework while adopting it in practice. Undocumented activists have reduced their reliance on politicians and the advocacy community by strategically creating a quasi-legal status for people who publicly identify themselves as undocumented. Immigration restrictionists have promoted an “attrition through enforcement” policy as a purportedly more humane alternative to mass incarceration and deportation. Instead of identifying, arresting, imprisoning, and deporting every undocumented immigrant in the U.S., the objective of attrition through enforcement is to make life in the U.S. so miserable for undocumented immigrants that they leave on their own. An aggressive campaign to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants estimated to live in the U.S. would be logistically and fiscally unworkable and would necessitate massive human rights violations.

(In)-Se Communities: The fox can’t guard the hen house | Ella Baker Center

The Orwellian-named “Se” Communities deportation program was rolled out under a cloud of deception so thick that last year, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose declared that immigration officialslied to her and local governments about the program.  Lofgren rightfully asked the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog, Office of Inspector General (OIG), to investigate.  But last Friday, it became painfully clear that this “watchdog” no longer has any teeth, and that solutions like California’s TRUST Act are more urgent than ever.  Hours after OIG issued two tepid reports this morning whose recommendations paper over the program’s serious safety and civil rights violations, news broke that the so-called watchdog itself isunder investigation by the FBI and US Dept. of Justice.

Op-Ed: End ICE’s hold on law enforcement agencies

Perla Rodriguez had already become a U.S. citizen when she was pulled over for a traffic violation in Sacramento County. One of the first questions the officer asked her was, “Where were you born?” She was later arrested and – to her shock and distress – held for four days in Sacramento County jail on an immigration “hold” request. Her sister brought her U.S. passport to show the sheriff deputies, but she had to wait to speak to the federal immigration agent who authorized her release from custody. Why was a U.S. citizen held in the county jail on immigration-based detention for four days? Because of the inaccurate database relied on by the federal Se Communities program, called S-Comm. Soon, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to announce reforms to the deeply flawed S-Comm federal enforcement program. But even if it adopted all the recommendations its troubled task force made in September, reforms cannot address the program’s harm to public safety and civil libertie

Comunidades Inseguras, Ejemplo de Incompetencia – La Opinion

El programa comenzó a operar sin objetivos claros que hasta hoy sigue separando familias trabajadoras -al punto que tres estados, incluyendo Nueva York, help han rehusado participar. El Inspector General de los Estados Unidos dio a conocer esta semana un informe sobre el manejo del programa por parte del Servicio de Aduanas e Inmigración (ICE). El estudio alega que no se puede establecer que haya habido un engaño deliberado por parte de la agencia federal, sino una “falta de claridad” en la estrategia y las comunicaciones. La impresión que deja el reporte es que el programa fue diseñado a medida que fue implementándose y que ICE fue cambiando su manera de pensar, por ejemplo, que lo que fue voluntario en 2009 y 2010, dejó de serlo arbitrariamente en agosto de 2011. Es inconcebible que ICE haya engañado, por incompetencia y no mala intención según el reporte, a numerosos estados de la Unión… – La Opinion

Warren: Se Communities needs fix before full implementation

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren says the federal Se Communities law should be improved before it is fully implemented by the end of next year. Warren said today that the law as it currently stands does not focus on violent offenders and would create barriers between immigrant communities and local police. The Harvard Law School professor spoke to reporters after appearing at a Statehouse event held by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Coalition. Under Se Communities, look fingerprints taken from a crime suspect by local police would be turned over to federal authorities, who could bring deportation proceedings if the person was in the U.S. illegally. – Boston Herald

LA Sheriff Sends More Inmates to ICE than to Prison

Crowding, seek violence and allegations of civil rights abuses are among the reasons the embattled Los Angeles County jail system is under federal investigation. But the county has also faced criticism in recent years in some circles for its federal-local partnerships with immigration authorities. Sheriff Lee Baca a supporter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s controversial Se Communities enforcement program, see which allows for the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration officials. The county has also long participated in a smaller voluntary federal-local partnership called 287(g), in which deportable inmates are identified and released post-conviction to immigration officials. How many L.A. County inmates are released to ICE? The 2011 numbers are found buried in new report on the county jail system from an independent justice expert, which among other things recommended closing the Men’s Central Jail downtown because of violence problems.