DHS Expands Controversial Secure Communities Program
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the budgetary request to complete the enlargement of the controversial Secure Communities program as part of "smart and effective enforcement of U.S. immigration laws."
She outlined Department of Homeland Security priorities for the 2013 fiscal year during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Napolitano said DHS' 2013 budget "includes funding to complete nationwide deployment" of the Secure Communities program in fiscal 2013, which ends Sept. 30, 2013.
The S-COMM initiative is aimed at identifying and removing deportable undocumented immigrants who land in state prisons and local jails.
"Nationwide implementation of Secure Communities and other enforcement initiatives, coupled with continued collaboration with DOJ (Department of Justice) ... is expected to continue to increase the number of criminal aliens and other priority individuals who are identified and removed," the secretary told lawmakers.
To criticisms from pro-immigrant groups, DHS insists that 94 percent of those deported through S-COMM are foreigners already convicted of crime, fugitives, repeat criminal offenders, and people detained crossing the border illegally.
The S-COMM program, which requires state and local law enforcement to share all detainees' fingerprints with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has driven deportations of undocumented immigrants to record levels.
Presente.org, an advocacy group, cites ICE statistics showing that a mere 22 percent of the nearly 400,000 people deported in the 2011 fiscal year had convictions for serious offenses.
It is only by redefining "criminal removal" to include people who committed minor infractions that authorities can claim criminals account for half of deportees, according to Presente.org.
Widespread opposition has led numerous municipalities and several states to attempt to opt out of S-COMM, though DHS says the program is obligatory.
A committee assembled to the program issued a report last September urging a series of reforms to increase transparency and focus the effort on deporting dangerous criminals.
"ICE should clarify that civil immigration law violators and individuals who are convicted of or charged with misdemeanors or other minor offenses are not top enforcement priorities" in the absence of other indicators that they pose a serious risk, the Task Force on Secure Communities said in its 33-page report.
Specifically, the panel said that the taking of fingerprints under S-COMM should not result in the deportation of an undocumented immigrant detained for a minor traffic infraction.
SOURCE
Immigrant Tracking System Ready Soon
In a statement before the House of Representatives Homeland Security subcommittee, the Department of Homeland Security is now on the final stages of its biometric data system. This new system would be able to keep tabs on immigrants when they leave the United States.
This system has been on the top wish list for security before 9/11. The exit system would be able to track individuals as they leave the country but was seen to be too costly to operate and maintain. During the testimony before the House subcommittee, John Cohen, DHS Deputy Counter Terrorism Coordinator did not disclose the cost of the system but assured members of the House that the system would be up and running “within weeks”.
The country’s inability to track millions of foreign visitors especially if they overstay their visas has been a hot topic in both politics and government. While the current administration has not made deportation of overstaying individuals a priority, those though with other criminal offenses, especially those considered as threats to public and national security, have been deported posthaste.
The new system would be pivotal, as data accumulated from immigrants is collected, stored and made available to law enforcement agencies to be able to identify visa overstays. This is most especially important when the individual entering the country since they pose a threat to national security or public safety.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the agency primarily responsible for deporting illegal immigrants. Their agents comb through visa records to assist in identification of individuals that have overstayed in the country and undertake deportation proceedings considered threats to the national security or community.
As of the latest statistics, 37,000 individuals with expired visas have been deported between 2009 and 2011. There is a current backlog of 1.6 million of suspected overstaying individuals since 2004. Nearly half of these individuals have left the country or applied to change their immigration status. The other half is still under review as these were deemed national security threats as priorities for deportation
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Background
Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.
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