Category Archives: Secure Communities News

Raising Arizona: Supreme Court’s Immigration Decision Creates More Questions Than It Answers

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Arizona v. United States, a closely watched case in which the federal government challenged Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB 1070. The decision and its impact has since been dissected in both legal and media circles. Perhaps more than anything, however, the immediate aftermath of Arizona highlights the host of difficult questions around state and local immigration enforcement that the Supreme Court didn’t answer.

Mother who sold tamales outside Walmart faces deportation – The Sacramento Bee

For two years, Juana Reyes helped feed her two small children and pay her rent by selling tamales at the Walmart Supercenter parking lot on Florin Road. Now the undocumented single mom faces possible deportation for peddling her chicken, pork and chili cheese tamales. Reyes was arrested for trespassing June 28 after the store’s security guard and Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies said they repeatedly told her to take her tamales elsewhere. Reyes spent 12 days in the Sacramento County jail until the trespass charge was dropped, said her lawyer, Julia Vera, and her children – Cesar Cuesta, 10, and Monserrat Cuesta, 7 – were put in foster care during that time. Reyes has been in California for 16 years and has no criminal history, according to her lawyer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Wednesday she has been placed in removal proceedings because she entered the United States illegally.

Sacramento Mother Fighting Deportation Becomes Face Of Trust Act « CBS

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The misdemeanor charges were dropped but she is still fighting to stay in this country. Juana Reyes was selling tamales in front of a South Sacramento Walmart for two years and was arrested. What happened for 13 days afterwards is why people here are protesting. Surrounded by a crowd of supporters, Reyes, click a mom who never really wanted any attention, help is now the face of the Trust Act that is designed to keep undocumented immigrants out of jail during the deportation process. After the second time Walmart security asked her to stop selling tamales and leave, Reyes got arrested in front of her 7-year-old and 10-year-old kids. “He put us in patrol vehicle with me and my children. He had us in patrol vehicle for over an hour,” said Reyes via a translator.

Local, Federal Authorities at Odds over Detention Requests | Swampland | TIME.com

Last Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference to announce that he didn’t want his city’s law-enforcement authorities to follow federal requests to hold some undocumented immigrants, try picked up on other charges, link for deportation. The national media’s ears perked up. Emanuel, a former Chief of Staff to President Obama, was at loggerheads with his old boss — good copy in the making. But on the same day, back in Washington, D.C., much bigger news was developing on the future of federal and local cooperation on immigration policy. John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told a House subcommittee that his efforts to persuade officials to honor any of ICE’s detention requests in the jurisdiction of Cook County, which includes Chicago, had hit a wall. “I won’t sugarcoat it,” he said. “I don’t think that approach is going to work in full.”

Local, Federal Authorities at Odds over Detention Requests – TIME

Last Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference to announce that he didn’t want his city’s law-enforcement authorities to follow federal requests to hold some undocumented immigrants, treat picked up on other charges, for deportation. The national media’s ears perked up. Emanuel, a former Chief of Staff to President Obama, was at loggerheads with his old boss — good copy in the making. But on the same day, back in Washington, D.C., much bigger news was developing on the future of federal and local cooperation on immigration policy. John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told a House subcommittee that his efforts to persuade officials to honor any of ICE’s detention requests in the jurisdiction of Cook County, which includes Chicago, had hit a wall. “I won’t sugarcoat it,” he said. “I don’t think that approach is going to work in full.”

Se Communities: The Trust Act fix

For nearly three years, the Obama administration has advertised the Se Communities program as a targeted enforcement tool that identifies “dangerous criminal aliens” for deportation. Over and over, federal officials have insisted that the program’s focus would be chiefly limited to those immigrants whose criminal convictions show that they pose a danger to public safety. But that’s not the case. In practice, Se Communities is a dragnet that fails to distinguish between felons convicted of serious crimes and nonviolent arrestees facing civil immigration violations. In California alone, more than half of the 75,000 people deported under the program since it began in 2009 had no criminal history or had only misdemeanor convictions.

Director de ICE defiende el polémico programa federal Comunidades Seguras

El director de la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE), John Morton, defendió el martes al polémico programa federal Comunidades Seguras, pero se comprometió a continuar su ajuste para responder a las preocupaciones de agencias policiales. Morton, quien compareció ante el Comité de Seguridad Nacional de la Cámara de Representantes, reconoció que las declaraciones iniciales del ICE causaron “confusión” sobre la operación del programa y sobre quién debía participar.

California’s Trust Act shows need for immigration reform – LA Times

For nearly three years, the Obama administration has advertised the Se Communities program as a targeted enforcement tool that identifies “dangerous criminal aliens” for deportation. Over and over, federal officials have insisted that the program’s focus would be chiefly limited to those immigrants whose criminal convictions show that they pose a danger to public safety. But that’s not the case. In practice, Se Communities is a dragnet that fails to distinguish between felons convicted of serious crimes and nonviolent arrestees facing civil immigration violations. In California alone, more than half of the 75,000 people deported under the program since it began in 2009 had no criminal history or had only misdemeanor convictions. Under the program, local law enforcement agencies are required to send the fingerprints of everyone booked into local jails to the FBI, which checks them against criminal databases….

Chicago, the Next Anti-Arizona – NYTimes

Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago is the latest official to diverge from the Obama administration’s widening use of local police in deporting illegal immigrants. He is seeking an ordinance that would bar Chicago cops from turning immigrants over to federal authorities if they do not have serious criminal convictions or outstanding warrants. The Obama administration has been rolling out a nationwide program, stuff Se Communities, cheap to catch illegal immigrants through the wide screening of people who are arrested and get fingerprinted in local jails. This has led to many thousands of deportations—and fierce criticism that the feds are catching way too many non-criminals and minor offenders, while delegating too much power to local cops. The administration says it has been working harder to deport only the bad guys, by using greater “discretion” in whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains and prosecutes. Mr. Emanuel’s response to the feds: You do your job and we’ll do ours…

Have Some Trust: California to Pass Anti-Arizona Immigration Bill

California is taking a stand on immigration – and it doesn’t exactly jive with a recent ruling by the Supreme Court on the issue.  Last week, online the California State Senate passed the TRUST Act, a move that is in direct contrast to the high court decision upholding a controversial provision of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law requiring police to check the status of people they stop for another reason, if they suspect the person is undocumented.  This new bill, also being called the “Anti-Arizona” bill, would lower the number of deportations in the wake of the commission of minor crimes. The TRUST Act will now go to the California state assembly and will most likely pass. The law would mean that, contrary to what goes on now, evidence of against an immigrant could only be passed on to federal officials after a violent or serious felony.