On August 5, 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dramatically changed their position on the Secure Communities Program. This program allowed the sharing of fingerprints taken by state and local law enforcement with ICE to identify individuals who were subject to deportation due to violations of criminal or immigration laws. Previously, ICE entered into Memorandums of Understanding with individual states to implement this program. Although 42 states agreed to participate, several states chose to opt-out of the program due to concerns over civil rights violations.
ICE will no longer require memorandums of understanding from states. ICE announced that they are implementing Secure Communities without options to opt-out. Fingerprints taken by state and local law enforcement are typically sent to a federal database hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These fingerprints results will be shared with ICE to help identify individuals who ICE has an interest in.
Unfortunately, this will increase the detention and deportation of aliens illegally and legally present in the United States.
