We Caught Them, Now We're Letting Them Go

Department of Homeland Security officials said that fewer illegal immigrants stopped by police for minor traffic violations would be held for deportation under changes announced Friday to a federal fingerprinting program. The program will change the way federal agents handle illegal immigrants when they are detained for petty vehicular offenses in response to a report by a task force on the federal program. One of the task force’s central recommendations was that the program, called Secure Communities, should avoid deportations of traffic violators. The sharply critical task force report, issued last September, argued that such deportations were inconsistent with the department’s stated priorities of removing foreigners with serious criminal records. The increase in deportations of minor offenders under Secure Communities, the task force concluded, was undermining vital ties of trust between local police and immigrant neighborhoods.

                In a 19-page response released Friday, Homeland Security officials forcefully reasserted their support for the program, which has been the center of fierce controversy since it began in October 2008. The program has put President Obama at odds with governors in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, who are his political allies, and eroded support for him in Latino communities. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that Latinos will be crucial voters in the presidential election. The Hispanic population of the United States is extremely valuable in the upcoming presidential election and has not stood by the Republicans for a long time and they show no signs of supporting Romney. The Obama administration’s changes came after a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday where government lawyers argued against an Arizona law that would expand the powers of the police to enforce immigration laws. Administration officials say Secure Communities is an example of the aggressive federal enforcement that makes action by state police unnecessary and counterproductive.

                ICE also reported having over 700 meetings last year with numerous law enforcement agencies and advocates for immigrants to explain the program that is about to be put into effect. This debate involves finding an immigrant that has come here or stayed here illegally, which is a crime, and then letting them go. Obviously I don’t necessarily agree with this because it is like catching a known car thief, and then letting him go back into the city. It sounds different when you substitute “criminal” in for “illegal immigrant,” but that is what they are and they should be treated as such when they are detained no matter what they are detained for.