Category Archives: Migrant Rights News

A safer route to se communities – PressDemocrat

Federal immigration authorities quietly announced a new policy just before Christmas that promises to ease conflicts with local law enforcement agencies while targeting violent criminals for deportation. The new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency policy mirrors what was promised four years ago when the Se Communities program was launched. ICE will review fingerprints from people arrested by local police, and it will seek custody of people believed to be in the United States illegally if they have committed a serious crime or are repeat offenders. In practice, ICE has detained and deported thousands of people with no criminal record or who have been arrested for petty offenses such as traffic violations. In Sonoma County, 47 percent of the people turned over to immigration agents in the first year of the program hadn’t been convicted of the crimes that landed them in jail.

An overdue fix to Se Communities – LA Times

The Obama administration has spent nearly four years trying to convince states and local law enforcement that the federal immigration program known as Se Communities is narrowly targeted to deporting dangerous criminals. It’s not. And late last month, the administration finally conceded as much when it announced long-overdue reforms that should restore some credibility and fairness to the controversial program. Se Communities was created to identify “dangerous criminal aliens” for deportation. Local law enforcement agencies were supposed to send the fingerprints of arrestees to federal immigration officials, who would run them through national crime databases. If an arrestee turned out to be an illegal immigrant with a serious criminal background, a “detainer” could be issued requesting that he be held for up to 48 hours so that federal officials could take him into custody.

Data Center: Deportations by county under the Se Communities Program – ContraCostaTimes.com

Click to see the map

California leads nation in immigration reform with TRUST Act

Look sharp, online Sacramento. And brush up on your Spanish: The immigration debate is set to flare up once again in Washington, D.C., but the path to citizenship may begin here in the state Capitol. Democratic state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano recently, and for the third time, introduced the TRUST Act to the California Legislature. This bill would limit state law enforcement’s participation in Se Communities, a system introduced by President George W. Bush and expanded by the Obama administration that allows federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask local police and sheriff departments across the country to hold undocumented immigrants already in custody for the purpose of deportation. The TRUST Act passed through both houses of the Legislature last fall before Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the bill. Now, amid rising dialogue on both sides of the aisle over immigration reform, it’s back. And Ammiano insists that the governor pay attention. “This is not something we can shy away from,”

Debating The Impact Of An Immigration Crackdown – NPR

In 2007, when Virginia’s Prince William County ordered police to check the immigration status of anyone they had “probable cause” to suspect was in the U.S. unlawfully, the impact was swift at family restaurant Ricos Tacos Moya. “Suddenly nobody showed up,” says Stacey Moya, an employee, and daughter of the owner. “Nobody was around. Not one soul. We would go hours without any customers, any clients. Nothing.” After community protests, the policy was soon watered down. In fact, police only check the status of those they arrest for a crime. Still, the stigma around the resolution stuck. Moya says one of her family’s restaurants went under. And while business at this one has picked up, it’s not the same. “Not even on weekends after church,” she says. “Nowhere near what it was before. I guess nobody likes to be around in the public that much.” Next year Congress is expected to again take up immigration reform, something it tried, but failed, to pass in 2006 and 2007. The collapse…

A Brighter Line on Immigration and Policing – NYTimes.com

The Obama administration on Friday announced a policy change that — if it works — should lead to smarter enforcement of the immigration laws, s with greater effort spent on deporting dangerous felons and less on minor offenders who pose no threat. The new policy places stricter conditions on when Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends requests, pharm known as detainers, to local law-enforcement agencies asking them to hold suspected immigration violators in jail until the government can pick them up. Detainers will be issued for serious offenders — those who have been convicted or charged with a felony, who have three or more misdemeanor convictions, or have one conviction or charge for misdemeanor crimes like sexual abuse, drunken driving, weapons possession or trafficking. Those who illegally re-entered the country after having been deported or posing a national-security threat would also be detained. But there would be no detainers for those with no convictions or records…

Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia Stands Up to Federal Immigration Policy

LA County Sheriff Lee Baca earlier this month backed off from his controversial position of complying with a federal government request to turn over for detention arrested individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants. Baca had initially made his position public in the days before Governor Jerry Brown’s veto of the TRUST Act which would have undermined the federal Se Communities program. But, after California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced in early December that local law enforcement agencies need not comply with Se Communities and that any compliance would be voluntary, sick Baca made the dramatic announcement that he would no longer turn over to federal authorities those individuals arrested for minor offenses who are also suspected undocumented immigrants. Baca was sued in October by the ACLU on behalf of suspected undocumented immigrants who were denied bail after being arrested for minor offenses….