RACIAL PROFILING
Civil rights, human rights, immigrant rights and faith-based organizations—206 of them—sent this letter (PDF) to Attorney General Eric Holder on May 7, 2012, asking that he “fulfill his stated commitment to ending racial profiling by reforming the [Dept. of Justice] June 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on April 27, 2012, issued its response to findings and recommendations made by the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Secure Communities. Despite having taken seven months to review and respond to the task force’s recommendations, ICE remains unwilling to truly examine and reform S-Comm and, in its response, does not take even the most modest recommendations seriously. This issue brief summarizes the task force’s recommendations and ICE′s disappointing response to them. (NILC, 5/12)
Prepared by a commission made up of national and community-based organizations that have witnessed the impacts of S-Comm on their members and communities. (8/11) (PDF)
From civil rights and policy groups expressing concerns about the newly established advisory committee that will advise on ways to improve the Secure Communities program, July 20, 2011. (7/11) (PDF)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has felt the heat of criticism from Capitol Hill and beyond about how Secure Communities has operated since its inception. On June 17, 2011, ICE director John Morton and Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties director Margo Schlanger announced “reforms” to the program. This document analyzes and critiques the memos issued to implement the announced reforms. (7/11)
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DHS is imposing Secure Communities on localities nationwide despite earlier insistence that the program was voluntary.
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SCOMM is an unfunded mandate that local communities enforce federal immigration law.
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SCOMM targets everyone who has ever had any dealings with the immigration system — not a prioritized set of dangerous criminals.
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SCOMM operates in a rule-free environment. (3/4/11)
The following memo, which no longer is available on the ICE website, is cited in the above analysis: Setting the Record Straight (Secure Communities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Aug. 17, 2010, PDF).
"Victims and witnesses are at particular risk as a result of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) programs, such as 287(g), Secure Communities,and the Criminal Alien Program, that involve state and local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement. . . . [T]hese programs are an attack on all people who look or sound foreign, regardless of whether they have been convicted of the offense in question and regardless of their immigration status." (2/15/11)
"The undersigned organizations welcome . . . [ICE's] recognition of the need to issue formal guidance regarding the use of detainers. . . . Detainers are a request that [law enforcement agencies] notify ICE when . . . arrested noncitizens will be released from custody, so that ICE may assume custody within a . . . 48-hour period during which the [agencies] may continue to detain them. Detainers are the linchpin of programs such as 287(g), Secure Communities, and the Criminal Alien Program, which increasingly intertwine the state criminal justice systems with federal immigration enforcement." (Posted 10/6/10, PDF)
NILC joined 500-plus organizations in drafting and signing a letter demanding that President Obama end the merger of immigration enforcement with criminal justice. The Sept. 29 letter presents proof that the administration's increased reliance on local law enforcement to arrest, detain, and deport immigrantshas exacerbated existing problems in the criminal justice system. (9/29/10, PDF)
Before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, submitted by Tyler Moran, Federal Policy Director, and Elizabeth Mauldin, Policy Attorney, June 24, 2010, PDF.
Based on interviews, direct observations, and a review of documents related to the 287(g) program, the OIG report juxtaposes evidence of serious problems with recommendations for change and ICE’s response to those recommendations. Of the 33 recommendations the OIG makes, ICE itself concurs with 32. The OIG report confirms issues raised by advocates since implementation of INA section 287(g) began in 2002 and provides damning evidence that the program is fundamentally flawed. (4/10)
(A PowerPoint presentation accompanying a Mar. 4, 2010, webinar presented by: Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Washington Defender Association’s Immigration Project, National Immigration Project of NLG, National Immigration Law Center, and Rights Working Group). (Posted 3/22/10).
ICE has grouped the major programs that merge immigration enforcement with the criminal justice system under an umbrella scheme called Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ICE ACCESS). (11/5/09)
"Secure Communities" applies to immigrants regardless of their guilt or innocence, how or why they were arrested, and whether or not their arrests were based on racial or ethnic profiling or were just a pretext for checking immigration status. ICE fact sheets and press releases leave many critical questions unanswered. (3/09)
