Immigration authority terminates Secure Communities agreements

Source: The Washington Post

A key immigration enforcement program that has drawn criticism from some state and local governments will terminate all existing agreements with jurisdictions over the program, federal authorities announced Friday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its director, John Morton, had sent a letter to state governors terminating the agreements “to avoid further confusion.”

Through the program, the FBI shares fingerprint data of people arrested by local and state law enforcement agencies with federal authorities, who can use the information to check for immigration law violations. The agreements were meant to educate states about the availability of the service, ICE officials say.

The initiative, which began in 2008, has been implemented in about half the jurisdictions in the country, with a goal of having it in place nationwide by 2013.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration-authority-terminates-secure-communities-agreements/2011/08/05/gIQAlwx80I_story.html

but it was especially problematic in that it placed local police in the position of cooperating with federal security forces against their own community which wrecks whatever trust there exists in the community and makes everyone less safe.