Deportation records compiled by immigration advocacy groups show that approximately 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the United States due to the use of a fingerprint sharing system by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Secure Communities program, a report said on Tuesday.
According to deportation-focused advocacy groups including the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, 79 percent of the people deported due to Secure Communities, the programs that shares acquired fingerprints, are non-criminals or were picked up for lower level offenses, such as traffic offenses or petty juvenile mischief.
Records procured by these groups from government records show that the Secure Communities program subjected 46,929 people to deportation, where 37,107 of those deported were low Level 1 or 2 offenders. The groups claim that approximately 12,000 were not criminals.
Secure Communities is an initiative established in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to share information on criminal aliens.
The fingerprint information accumulated from jailed criminals shared between the Department of Justice and the DHS is submitted to the FBI through the state, and checked against past criminal history as well as biometric records.
“The Secure Communities strategy provides ICE with an effective tool to identify criminal aliens in local custody,” said Secure Communities Executive Director David Venturella in a statement.
Since its creation, Secure Communities has led to the deportation of more than 9,800 criminal aliens convicted for Level 1 crimes including murder, rape, and kidnapping.
According to an ICE statement, “Biometric information sharing capability has resulted in the removal of more than 24,800 criminal aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes, which account for the majority of crimes committed by aliens.”
Currently, ICE has 481 state and local agencies in 27 states participate in the finger-sharing Secure Communities program. By 2013, ICE projects that it will have jurisdictions in every state.
According to deportation-focused advocacy groups including the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, 79 percent of the people deported due to Secure Communities, the programs that shares acquired fingerprints, are non-criminals or were picked up for lower level offenses, such as traffic offenses or petty juvenile mischief.
Records procured by these groups from government records show that the Secure Communities program subjected 46,929 people to deportation, where 37,107 of those deported were low Level 1 or 2 offenders. The groups claim that approximately 12,000 were not criminals.
Secure Communities is an initiative established in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to share information on criminal aliens.
The fingerprint information accumulated from jailed criminals shared between the Department of Justice and the DHS is submitted to the FBI through the state, and checked against past criminal history as well as biometric records.
“The Secure Communities strategy provides ICE with an effective tool to identify criminal aliens in local custody,” said Secure Communities Executive Director David Venturella in a statement.
Since its creation, Secure Communities has led to the deportation of more than 9,800 criminal aliens convicted for Level 1 crimes including murder, rape, and kidnapping.
According to an ICE statement, “Biometric information sharing capability has resulted in the removal of more than 24,800 criminal aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes, which account for the majority of crimes committed by aliens.”
Currently, ICE has 481 state and local agencies in 27 states participate in the finger-sharing Secure Communities program. By 2013, ICE projects that it will have jurisdictions in every state.
