Demonstration on Wednesday, December 22 on Governor Patrick’s Decision to Sign Memorandum of Understanding with ICE

Immigrant Communities and Allies Denounce Patrick Administration’s Intention to Sign on to the Secure Communities Program

When: Wednesday, December, 22 at 11:00 a.m.
Where: In front of the Massachusetts State House

Boston: Immigrant communities and allies gather at the State House to denounce the Patrick Administration’s intention to sign on to the Secure Communities Program of ICE.  Since it was revealed last summer that the City of Boston had been secretly participating in Secure Communities, Centro Presente has been running a campaign, Just Communities/Comunidades Justas, with the support of ACLU-Mass and AFSC-Project Voice, to educate the Latino immigrant community and its allies about the effects of this program.   After the action a delegation will deliver a letter to the office of the Governor to request a meeting between him and the organizations to discuss the matter.

Scheduled Speakers:
Fred Small – Senior Minister of First Parish in Cambridge
Patricia Montes – Executive Director, Centro Presente
Nancy Murray – ACLU of Massachusetts
Gabriel Camacho – Project Voice Regional Director
Representative of the Chinese Progressive Association
Natalicia Tracy – Executive Director, Brazilian Immigrant Center
Supporters: AFSC Project VOICE, ACLU of Massachusetts, Brazilian Immigrant Center, Boston May Day Committee, Boston New Sanctuary Movement, Cambridge United for Justice with Peace, Centro Presente, Chelsea Collaborative, Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace, Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative (IWCC), Immigration Task Force of First Parish in Cambridge, Jobs With Justice – MA, Massachusetts Global Action, Matahari – Eye of the Day, Metrowest Worker Center, Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE), The Network/La Red, Somerville Community Corporation, Student Immigrant Movement  and United for a Fair Economy.

ACLU of Massachusetts Alarmed by Gov. Patrick’s Decision to Sign on to ICE Deportation Scheme

Growing ICE database increases risk that U.S. citizens will be wrongfully detained and targeted for deportation.

December 17, 2010
Boston – The ACLU of Massachusetts today expressed profound concern and disappointment with the reported decision that Massachusetts will voluntarily sign on to a federal program giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) automatic access to the identifying information of anyone arrested in the state.

The program, called “Secure Communities” or “S-Comm,” creates an automatic pipeline of information from every city and town in Massachusetts to ICE, feeding it tens of thousands of names and fingerprints a year–most of them from U.S. citizens.

The information-sharing is triggered when there is an arrest in any and all instances, including a misdemeanor such as operating a car without a license. Even in the case of a wrongful arrest where the charge is thrown out, the fingerprints and information will be sent to ICE.

“We are concerned that tens of thousands of immigrants and U.S. citizens in Massachusetts will have their fingerprints checked through ICE every year and entered into their fast-growing database,” said Nancy Murray, ACLU of Massachusetts education director. “The bigger the database, the more opportunity for error. U.S. citizens could be wrongfully detained and targeted for deportation.”

Law enforcement agencies tout this program as one that focuses on deporting the most violent and dangerous immigrants. However, according to ICE’s own statistics about the pilot program that took place in Boston starting in 2008, this has not been the case here. Less than 25 percent of the people deported under the Boston S-Comm pilot program had been convicted of the worst category of crime, and over half had never been convicted of any crime. This means that potentially many of those detained and deported were not, in fact, dangerous criminals, but had simply overstayed their permission to be in the country.

“The program in fact makes our communities less safe,” said Laura Rótolo, ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney. “Programs like S-Comm encourage racial profiling and undermine community policing efforts because people become afraid to report crime or ask the police for help, out of fear that their information will be sent to ICE.”

The program is currently voluntary, although ICE hopes to make it automatic and mandatory by 2013. By voluntarily signing on to this program, Massachusetts is sending a strong anti-immigrant message.

“There has been no opportunity for public comment, and the federal government has given inconsistent information about how S-Comm works,” said Rótolo. “It is particularly baffling that the Governor would be willing to sign on to a program about which so little is known.”
Currently, ICE maintains that once Massachusetts has signed on, its cities and towns will automatically be enrolled. The ACLU of Massachusetts will work with cities and towns that wish to attempt to “opt out” of participation in the program.

We disapprove the decision of Governor Patrick to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with ICE entering the state into the controversial “Secure Communities” program. We URGE you to join us in opposition to Governor Patrick’s decision!

Background on “Secure Communities”!

Currently, when the police arrests a suspect, their fingerprints are sent to the FBI, which checks a criminal database to verify identity and see if they are wanted in other places. Under “Secure Communities,” the FBI will run fingerprints against an immigration database. If there is no match for an existing record, fingerprints are added to the immigration database (no matter what the immigration status is of the person arrested). If there is a match, the FBI sends information to ICE to check status. ICE then sends information to the police and ICE’s local Enforcement and Removal Office, which then holds the individual until ICE can take him or her into custody. All of this can happen before formal charges are filed.

Secure Communities often ensnares hard-working immigrants guilty of no crime:

• Secure Communities” has not done what it is supposed to do – go after dangerous criminals.  75 % of those deported under this program have NOT been dangerous criminals.
• In Boston, over half of the deportees – 53% — have not even been accused of any criminal offense whatsoever.
• By clogging up the system with low-level or civil cases, “Secure Communities” takes ICE’s resources from actually pursuing real criminals.

“Secure Communities” breeds distrust between police and the community, decreasing safety for everyone:

• Community members are already expressing alarm and are fearful of interaction with police.
• The program COULD encourage racial profiling since police would know that everyone they arrest would get an immigration check. We have already heard cases of racial profiling in the Western & Central Mass.
• Victims of domestic violence are often accused by their abuser and subsequently arrested, making them prime targets for deportation through”Secure Communities.” The program may even discourage women from reporting life-threatening conditions.

The mechanism of “Secure Communities” is seriously flawed:

• There is no way to appeal for people who believe they have been wrongly identified in ICE’s database.
• There is no program oversight, to be sure that any of the abuses, such as racial profiling, are not taking place.
• The governor rightly said before that we need much more data about the program before spreading it widely. We still do not have that data.

Massachusetts already has an effective system for identifying and deporting criminals.

• MA already has a 287 g accord with the house of corrections, so criminals who are actually convicted already go through the deportation process after serving their time.
• This system could potentially tie up bed space in local jails, where people are held before transfer to ICE.

The governor’s rationale for signing on now doesn’t make sense.

• The Governor claims that he is legally required to sign-on to Secure Communities. This is false – there is no legal requirement to sign-on.  ICE plans to make Secure Communities national by 2013, but they will do so regardless of whether a jurisdiction wants it or not.
• The Governor is claiming that he is signing on to Secure Communities in order to “have a seat at the table”.  There is no table.  In prior discussions between state officials and ICE, ICE has said that there is no flexibility and that they are not willing to put any limitations on their enforcement authority.

ICE’s claim that this program focuses its efforts on “Dangerous Offenders” is dubious for three reasons:

• There is no reason to believe that ICE resources are that limited.
• ICE resources expand every year, so even if this claim is true now, it won’t be true in the near future.
• The majority of dangerous offenders are serving time in prison. ICE resources won’t be used on them until their prison terms are up, leaving resources free to go after other immigrants.