Alien-identity program expands
A fingerprinting program to identify illegal aliens will be extended across Massachusetts and New York this week, Obama administration officials have announced, expanding federal enforcement efforts despite opposition from the governors and immigrant groups in those states.
In e-mails sent Tuesday to officials and the police in the two states, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials advised that the program, Secure Communities, would be activated “in all remaining jurisdictions” this Tuesday.
In June, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts declined to sign an agreement with the immigration agency to expand Secure Communities beyond a pilot program that was implemented in the Boston area in 2006.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York wanted to suspend the program, which had been initiated in a number of counties.
Opponents argued that the program was an overly wide dragnet that was deporting many illegal aliens arrested for minor offenses and who had no criminal histories. The program encouraged racial profiling by the police and eroded trust in law enforcement among immigrants, they said.
Under Secure Communities, fingerprints of anyone booked by the local or state police are sent through the FBI, which checks databases of the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration records. If there is a match, officials at the immigration agency decide whether to issue a detainer, asking the police to hold the person for federal agents.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they made changes to respond to state officials’ concerns and to focus the program on deporting serious criminals.
They said they revised the detainers to clarify that suspected illegal aliens could be held for only 48 hours. They provided civil-rights training for the police in places where the program was started, officials said.
A recent change in arrest procedures would decrease detentions of illegal aliens stopped for speeding or driving without a license, the officials said.
Both governors had measured reactions to the news that the administration had taken a politically fraught decision off their hands.
In New York, a spokesman for Cuomo said he remained opposed to the program. “We are monitoring the situation,” the spokesman said.
On Thursday, Patrick minimized the practical effect of the program’s expansion, saying the state already shares arrest information with federal authorities. Changes in the program had addressed some of his concerns, he said, but added: “It is very important to me that people not see this as a license to profile.”