DHS Releases Two Reports on Se Communities – NAM

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The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector-General today released two reports regarding the Se Communities federal immigration enforcement program. Under Se Communities, police share the fingerprints of all arrestees with federal immigration authorities. Implemented in 2008, the program has expanded rapidly and is expected to be active in all counties nationwide by 2013. Althought the program’s goal is to prioritize the deportation of those with a criminal record, it has led to the deportation of thousands of immigrants with no criminal records. Critics also charge that officials have given local police and governments mixed messages about whether they can opt out of the program. “Today’s reports do nothing to address the well-founded criticisms of S-Comm that have been coming from all corners of the country for the past four years,” said Kate Desormeau, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. – 04.06.2012

Amnesty International: US Immigration Policy Violates Human Rights

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Amnesty International’s new report, “In Hostile Terrain: Human rights violations in immigration enforcement in the U.S. Southwest,” examines the human rights violations associated with immigration enforcement at the border and in the interior of the United States. The report finds that the United States is failing in its obligations under international law to ensure human rights of immigrants. Among its findings are: * Recent immigration policy in border areas has pushed undocumented immigrants to use dangerous routes through the U.S. desert; hundreds of people die each year as a result. * Immigration enforcement in the United States is a federal responsibility. Federal immigration officials are increasingly working in collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies but improper oversight of state and local law enforcement has led to increased racial profiling. – New America Media 04.03.2012

L.A. County’s Sheriff Lee Baca, an undocumented immigrant’s son

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KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has profiled Los Angeles County’s top lawman Sheriff Lee Baca, check an unorthodox cop who has come under fire not only for allegations of violence inside the county jail system, but for his seemingly contradictory positions regarding immigrants. While Baca has made a point of reaching out to Muslims to ease fears about discrimination, he is also a supporter of Se Communities, a controversial federal-local partnership that sends the fingerprints of people booked at county facilities to immigration authorities. Further complicating his stance is his background, as he’s the son of an undocumented immigrant. From the story: The sheriff’s story is, in some ways, typical L.A.: “My mother was born in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, and she came to the United States when she was less than a year old,” Baca says. The sheriff has revealed that his mother was an illegal immigrant who worked as a seamstress. – Multi-American 04.03.2012

ICE Activates S-Comm in WA Despite State Opposition – Seattle Times

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Silently and without fanfare, cheap U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has activated in every county in Washington a controversial program that will allow the fingerprints of everyone booked into local jails to be checked against a national immigration database. Se Communities, as the federal program is known, case now exists in all 39 Washington counties as well as in jurisdictions in 45 other states. The idea behind it, according to ICE, is to identify, detain and eventually deport those immigrants who are subject to removal from the country — with a particular focus on those who have committed serious crimes.