City Swings Back Against "Secure Communities"

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City Swings Back Against “Secure Communities”

by Melissa Bailey | Dec 13, 2011 4:19 pm

(14) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Immigrants

Melissa Bailey Photo If the federal Secure Communities program spreads to New Haven, it would “destroy” the trust police have built up with the community, Mayor John DeStefano warned.

DeStefano joined other local politicians Tuesday at the Columbus Family Academy at 255 Blatchley Ave., in the heart of the city’s Latino community, to launch a new campaign to block the federal government’s effort to work with cities to deport people who’ve broken immigration law.

Under the Secure Communities program, launched in 2008, the FBI shares fingerprints of people arrested by local police with federal immigration officials, who check them against immigration records. If the person has violated immigration law, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can ask a municipality for a “detainer,” to hold that person for up to 48 hours.

The program, originally designed to target “the worst of the worst” serious offenders, has led to the deportation of those who had committed no offense other than violating immigration law, according to a report by a federal task force assigned to review the program. The task force also reported widespread concern that the program was cutting away at trust between cops and immigrant communities.

At a time when New Haven is trying to revive community policing, Secure Communities “would destroy an essential element of trust” between cops and residents that the city has worked hard to cultivate, DeStefano said.

New Haven five years ago issued a general order calling on cops not to ask for immigration papers when responding to routine police calls. Secure Communities would reverse that trend and “make local police part of the immigration system,” DeStefano said.

DeStefano called on the state not to honor detainer orders from the federal government, except in cases where immigrants are on the FBI terrorist list or are perpetrators of a violent crime. In New Haven, he noted, Latinos have very low participation in violent crime. Most homicides involve disputes between black males.

Secure Communities has already been rolled out in Fairfield County.

DeStefano said he found out from ICE on Sept. 21 that it planned to spread the program to New Haven on Sept. 27. That date passed and “nothing happened.” Two days later, ICE told him it had suspended plans to implement the program. Plans to implement the program appear to be on hold, though the federal government plans to do so by 2013.

A group of New Haven aldermen has already come out in opposition to the program, saying it breeds fear and would prevent Latinos from reporting crimes and trusting cops.

More local politicians joined the campaign Tuesday.

The program “will make our local police officers the enemy of the people,” said state Rep. Pat Dillon.

“People are going to lose their trust in the police department,” said state Rep. Juan Candelaria.

State Rep. Roland Lemar called the program divisive and “grossly unjust.” Just as in the immigration raids of 2007, Lemar said, Latinos will be afraid to come to school, go to church, shop at local businesses and go to sports games.

Families will be torn apart by arbitrary deportation of working people, warned New Haven Alderman Migdalia Castro.

Police Lt. Luiz Casanova, head of patrol, said the department’s goal is keeping the streets safe—“not instilling fear in the community.”

“We don’t support illegal immigration,” but we have to recognize there is a large population of people who have broken immigration law, said said pastor Jose Champagne. Many of them pray in New Haven churches, work hard, and pay their taxes with no way to recoup benefits from the federal government. These people should be embraced as part of the community, not terrorized by the federal government, he said.

Reached after the press conference, Mike Lawlor, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning, said he has been talking to DeStefano and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra about their concerns about the program. He said the state agrees with DeStefano’s concerns and those raised by the Task Force on Secure Communities.

“If we get into situation where Latinos are being reluctant to cooperate with police as witnesses, as victims or as jurors, the system’s going to break down,” Lawlor said. Even if victims’ fingerprints won’t be sent to the feds, immigrants still worry about being deported if they interact with cops.

Lawlor said most of the decisions about how this plan will be implemented will be up to municipalities, who’ll be getting these federal detainers at local lockups. Towns and cities can chose to ignore some detainers where the person is not the perpetrator of a serious crime, but Lawlor said it would be reckless to refuse to issue any detainers, because the perpetrators might be wanted for serious federal crimes.

Lawlor said New Haven is in a unique position: It’s the only city in Connecticut where the state—not local police—runs the local lockup. In an extra twist, the lockup is run by the judicial marshals, who are governed not by the executive branch, but by the judicial branch.

O’Donovan Murphy, deputy director of judicial marshal services, said the judicial branch would not ignore requests from the federal government to detain a prisoner. If a detainer comes in for an arrestee, he said, “we’re going to adhere to the detainer.”

The Board of Aldermen is holding a public hearing on the Secure Communities program Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. at the Columbus Family Academy at 255 Blatchley Ave.

Comments

posted by: Noteworthy on December 13, 2011 5:37pm

This is a tempest in a teapot. A worthless exercise. If ICE says it has suspended the enforcement program, then why is anybody pushing something radical like flipping the bird at the federal government’s law enforcement? Why can’t DeStefano and these other hand wringers just monitor what’s going on and take a wait and see attitude? Perhaps the program is under review and is being adjusted to its original intent which if true, makes all these pols standing around look rather foolish. This press conference plays to people’s worst fears even as they pontificate that they are only protecting the illegal community. It’s these kinds of press conferences and initiatives that give politics a bad name. It shouldn’t be called politics. It’s should be called PANDERING.

posted by: FacChec on December 13, 2011 6:09pm

Destefano, Lemar and Police Lt. Luiz Casanova, provided this same argument in 2008 to the Freedom Of Information Commission concerning immigrants with ID cards who feared the release of their public identity.

The commission agreed to not release their identity.

Here again they use the same lame excuse to deter the secure community program, even though nearly half of the immigrant community is now legal in Connecticut.

Read it here:

http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/new-americans-constitution-state

If more than 45% have become legal in CT, why the fear mongering and political posturing by Destefano??

posted by: Dave Francis on December 13, 2011 8:33pm

Throw the Major out, as this nation answers to the “Rule of Law.” NumbersUSA has the costs and truth about the illegal alien invaders.

posted by: Angel on December 14, 2011 6:38am

How can you pay taxes if you are here illegally?

posted by: Oh, I see now why people distrust noteworthy on December 14, 2011 10:18am

Noteworthy,

... Everyone should read this article, in todays NYT, to see how damaging the secure communities act is… And this is just one of its many problems…it is arresting andillegally detaining American citizens!
Stop this awful program and get fully informed by reading this quick article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/measures-to-capture-illegal-aliens-nab-citizens.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp

posted by: @Angel on December 14, 2011 10:23am

(1) Payroll taxes are deducted from your paycheck regardless of your status. Many undocumented immigrants do in fact get paid on the books. Unlike you and me, they often do not file a return so they don’t get a refund in the event they overpay taxes over the year in payroll deductions. So they actually end up paying more than they would otherwise owe. (Undocumented immigrants can file a return—see point 2 below.)

(2) You can file your tax return using an individual taxpayer ID # (ITIN) even if you do not have a social security #. Many immigrants do so in the hope that if they one day have the chance to apply for legal status, it will benefit them to show that they paid taxes. Not sure that that’s really the case, though.

(3) Everyone pays sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, etc. regardless of immigration status.

You can get some numbers here: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/unauthorized-immigrants-pay-taxes-too

posted by: Threefifths on December 14, 2011 11:05am

@Angel get a work visa and they would not have a problem.

posted by: ......... on December 14, 2011 11:12am

Here’s a thought, don’t break the law and you won’t have to worry about this whole process.

And if Johnny and Luis decide to thumb their noses at the Feds they should face obstruction charges and locked up and lose their jobs for not doing them.

posted by: Threefifths on December 14, 2011 11:13am

posted by: Oh, I see now why people distrust noteworthy on December 14, 2011 9:18am
Noteworthy,

I don’t see a problem with this.In fact If this was me ,I would sue for false arrest.Also my car was total buy a Immigrant in orange who had no drivers license,But had a New Haven I D CARD.I hope I can sue the City Of New Haven.

posted by: Threefifths on December 14, 2011 11:32am

Also by the way Black males get stop more then any other group.

Profiling’s Still the Routine for Brooklyn’s Black Men

http://www.colorlines.com/archives/2010/07/nypd_stop_and_frisk_in_brooklyn.html

posted by: Noteworthy on December 14, 2011 11:35am

Oh I see -

I read that article and it’s disturbing for sure as are other stories I’ve read of poor performance by government officials. But my point is, if ICE is not rolling it out here, what’s the point of opposing something that’s not happening?

And by the way, the key person who has done the most damage to community policing and building trust in the police in every neighborhood, not just this one, is John DeStefano. He has had a merry-go-round in police chiefs, an incoherent public safety policy; didn’t support community policing until it became too politically hot not to; and protected Billy White for years despite hundreds if not millions of dollars in taxpayer pay outs for his disgusting and abusive behavior.

posted by: New Haven Taxpayer on December 14, 2011 3:36pm

So Noteworthy, are you suggested we wait to act until ICE is banging down our doors in the middle of the night and deporting our neighbors? Or until one of our neighbors is “detained” with no recourse for days because ICE and DHS can’t keep their records straight? This was supposed to go into affect in September, but was delayed because we voiced opposition. This is about preventing the abuse of members of our community.

posted by: FacChec on December 14, 2011 5:27pm

I have absolutely no problem with the implementation of the Secured Communities program, which is not a immigration congressional mandated.

Ordinary and Naturalized citizens all across this nation have long been subject to cross referencing of fingerprints, and in the case of a convicted felon, cross referencing of DNA samples, between and among local and state law enforcement agencies.

Wanted assailants stopped for traffic violations in one state are routinely crossed referenced for warrants in the other states and immediately extradited to the wanted locality.

So if extradition is a standard practice for citizens of the U.S.

“What’s the BS about…

I’ll answer that…..

A tempest in a tea pot, a worthless exercise to stir up division among ethic groups in order to divide and conquer voters.

posted by: anon on December 15, 2011 9:06am

... Community policing is a joke. Even without LICE, er ICE, lurking around, no one trusts cops.

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