Sometimes you want to go right to the source. That’s why Deportation Nation offers a Library of primary documents. We’ve just added several recent reports on Secure Communities by non-profits and ICE. You can read the documents online, add your comments and highlight them. In the section on “ICE Data, Reports & Audits” we added a March 2011 Memo from... Read More

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced new plans on Thursday  to develop an oversight process and to train local police who participate in the Secure Communities program during a 2012 budget request hearing for the department. “ICE will work with DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Department of Justice to develop a robust oversight... Read More

Many of the documents were heavily redacted. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) recently released 15,000 pages of internal documents about whether participation in Secure Communities is mandatory. To learn about the details they reveal, Deportation Nation interviewed Sarahi Uribe of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. She is a plaintiff in the FOIA... Read More

Many of the released ICE documents were heavily redacted. Newly released records reveal how federal authorities kept altering their stance on whether local police are required to share arrest data with immigration agents, even if they ask not to. “Keeping you in the loop as we progress with always changing policy as it relates to [Secure Communities],” reads a May 2010... Read More

As President Obama prepares to release his 2012 budget on Monday, a new report suggests he should re-evaluate the price tag for two immigration enforcement programs that have failed to meet their mandate. The government spends $23,000 to deport a single immigrant, almost double what it previously estimated, suggests the report from the National Immigration Forum (NIF). It highlights... Read More

Editor’s note: This is the latest blog post from a 27-year-old college graduate who ran a small construction clean-up company in Arizona until he was stopped by police for a traffic infraction in late summer of 2010. After Yogi (not his real name) was arrested and fingerprinted his information was shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was... Read More

Editor’s note: This is the latest blog post from a 27-year-old college graduate who ran a small construction clean-up company in Arizona until he was stopped by police for a traffic infraction in late summer of 2010. After Yogi (not his real name) was arrested and fingerprinted his information was shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was then... Read More

A request for records concerning the Secure Communities program has stalled once again. This time the delay is credited to formatting problems. Judge Shira Scheindlin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of  New York has asked in a Feb. 3 ruling for both parties in the dispute to resolve the issue. “Once again, this Court is required to rule on an e-discovery... Read More

If steps aren’t taken to monitor local police not trained in immigration enforcement, the federal immigration agency’s Secure Communities program could invite racial profiling and pretexual arrests on a larger scale – more so than the highly controversial 287(g) program, warns a new report from the Migration Policy Institute. The warning is part of a report released... Read More

A recent Washington Post article highlights how Virginia police are frustrated that Secure Communities has targeted non-criminal immigrants for deportation while letting dangerous offenders go free. The solution, they argue, is even more involvement of local police in immigration enforcement. Police dissatisfaction in Loudoun County, VA, focuses on the federal fingerprint database... Read More

Editor’s note: This is the latest blog post from a 27-year-old college graduate who ran a small construction clean-up company in Arizona until he was stopped by police for a traffic infraction in late summer of 2010. After Yogi (not his real name) was arrested and fingerprinted his information was shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was then... Read More

New York counties enrolled in Secure Communities as of January 13, 2010. (Source: ICE) There isn’t much landscaping work in Rockland County during the winter, so the Jornaleros Project rents space from a church where day laborers can stay indoors, find warm clothes, and pass the time taking English classes. During the rest of the year, the project often advises workers on... Read More

Update: Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin has signed a Secure Communities agreement with ICE and is waiting ICE’s co-signature. His spokesperson, Amy Kemp, told Deportation Nation the agreement was not modified from the template signed with other states. Kemp said once ICE activates the program, all police departments in Rhode Island  will begin sharing arrest... Read More

Colorado is set to become the first state to put significant limits on  Secure Communities, a program that shares local arrest data with federal immigration agents. Protection for domestic violence victims and new oversight measures appear alongside boilerplate language in a familiar ”memorandum of agreement” (MOA) that 35 other states have signed with Immigration... Read More

With his civil rights legacy in jeopardy, New York Gov. David Paterson has released a new Secure Communities Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). On his second to last day in office, Paterson said in a press release that “advocates have raised valid concerns, which is why I instructed my staff to renegotiate the agreement with the Federal government.” But immigrant and... Read More

New York Governor David Paterson has just a few weeks left in office and pressure is growing for him to rescind the state’s agreement to participate in Secure Communities. The controversial program has yet to go into effect here. If it does, federal immigration agents will be able to monitor arrest data from every jail in the state. Thursday immigrants and their supporters... Read More

Is it possible to opt-out of the controversial Secure Communities program that shares local arrest data with immigration agents? The public may know as soon as January. Today lawyers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tried to argue before Judge Shira Scheindlin in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that they needed more time to respond to an... Read More

Since it began in the final months of the Bush administration, Secure Communities has quickly spread. Thirty-four states now use the program to share arrest data from local law enforcement agencies with federal immigration agents. That leaves more than a dozen hold-outs. Last week Washington’s State Patrol declined to sign an agreement with Immigration and Custom’s... Read More

Archived video is now available from two round table discussions on immigration enforcement policies and the experiences of communities where 287(g) agreements have been implemented. The discussions were part of an event hosted by the Wilson Center last month. Part 1: The Scope, Effectiveness, and Accountability of Enforcement Programs Part 2: The Impact of 287 (g) Agreements and... Read More

(En Inglés) Por Renee Feltz, ilustraciones de Stokely Baksh, traducción de Vladimir Flores García. Era una noche reciente de sábado en Jackson Heights cuando un grupo de hombres se encontraron para disfrutar de unos tragos en un bar con clientela internacional. De salida a la avenida Roosevelt, las ruidosas conversaciones del grupo fueron interrumpidas por dos agentes del NYPD. Quienes... Read More