Growth in Criminal vs. Non-criminal Detainees. Credit: TRAC

It turns out there is some common ground in the polarized debate over how to reform U.S. immigration policy.

“One thing liberals and conservatives and everyone in between can agree on is that truly dangerous people should be at the top of the list for deportation,” said Rep. David Price (D-NC).

Deportation Nation will spend the next year critically reporting on a key immigration enforcement program designed to achieve this goal. Called Secure Communities, it relies on local police to enter arrest data from local jails into a joint FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database. If ICE officers find a match, they can obtain custody and begin deportation proceedings.

“There is no part of me that is not fully committed to Secure Communities,” ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton recently told Price’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which helped direct a quarter of ICE’s budget to deporting immigrants in prisons and jails. “Frankly, I think it’s the future of criminal alien enforcement,” Morton said.

Source: ICE Secure Communities Statistic

The future is already here for 200 counties in 20 states, and ICE plans to expand Secure Communities to all 3,000 of the country’s jails by 2013. Click here to find out if your county is already enrolled.

We’re asking: As this program goes nationwide, is it meeting it’s mandate? Is it making communities more secure?

In our library you’ll find data from ICE that points to a key flaw already identified with this program: the vast majority of immigrants deported through Secure Communities committed low-level offenses like trespassing, disorderly conduct and traffic offenses. Others simply face charges and have yet to be convicted. You can help mark-up this data and other reports using our interactive online reader.

On our “Enforcement Desk” blog you’ll find updates such as how lawmakers in the nation’s capital fear Secure Communities will damage relations between immigrants and police. Critics point out that in cities that have adopted the program, fewer immigrants report crimes or are willing to help with other investigations.

Visit our glossary for clarification on terms like “criminal alien” and what exactly is a “Level 1 offender.” To stay up to date on the latest immigration enforcement news subscribe to our RSS feed.

Our front page features an interactive map that shows how ICE is deploying Secure Communities in areas where it "will have the biggest bang for the buck," according to Morton. These are areas with large Hispanic and foreign born populations.

In the coming months we will launch a tool that allows immigrants to call in and share their story of being detained by ICE after they were arrested by police. We have already heard from one man detained when he went to pay a fine for trespassing.

As we speak to a variety of sources and hear back on our information requests from ICE (it takes a while), we will bring you in-depth reports and develop new features.

For now, everything on the site is free to share as long as you credit Deportation Nation and link back to us.

We hope you find this website useful for understanding the current direction of immigration reform which has led to an all-time high in deportations.