By: Daniel Nardini
Until now, no independent report has been done on the impact of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program. This was largely because no information on statistics or individual cases had been released to the public. The government has stated that the program has and remains to catch undocumented with criminal records in the United States or in other countries to protect immigrant communities. However, an independent report compiled by the University of California at Berkeley’s law school and the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law in New York is shedding new light on the statistics and cases of the deportees. The information is based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the report, 93 percent of all those arrested under the Secure Communities program were Latino. That is a staggering number in of itself, and this alone lends credence that the Latino communities throughout the United States are being targeted.
It gets worse from there. Out of the 226,000 people being held in detention for deportation, one-third of them have American children and/or spouses. What this means is that in many cases whole communities have been torn apart by the Secure Communities program. In other words, the program has done more harm than good for the Latino communities it is supposed to secure. In fact, many of the undocumented were being put into deportation hearings based on their being undocumented rather than having any criminal record. This is the exact opposite of what the Secure Communities program should be doing—to catch the “bad guys.” Equally disturbing is the discovery of 680 cases of deportation proceedings against U.S. citizens. By law, American citizens cannot be arrested nor held in prison or detention centers by immigration. Five of those cases, the report has found, were of U.S. citizens who were locked up for no apparent reason or charge by immigration.
The U.S. government disputes the findings of the report—saying that the findings are exaggerations or half-truths. I find it interesting that the government would say that considering that the report is based on documents, statistics and individual cases kept by the U.S. government itself. Because of this the report is just so damning. Just as equally credible is that the report was put out by two fairly well-known law academic institutions. The Secure Communities program was started by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2008, and expanded under U.S. President Barack Obama. The U.S. government intends to make the Secure Communities program nationwide by 2013. Yet with so many errors, so many people who are not criminals and have no criminal records, and actual U.S. citizens being caught up in this indiscriminate dragnet and locked up, many are saying that the Secure Communities program should be reviewed and even scrapped. At the current rate this is going, it seems doubtful.
The Truth About the Latino Deportees
By: Daniel Nardini
Until now, no independent report has been done on the impact of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program. This was largely because no information on statistics or individual cases had been released to the public. The government has stated that the program has and remains to catch undocumented with criminal records in the United States or in other countries to protect immigrant communities. However, an independent report compiled by the University of California at Berkeley’s law school and the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law in New York is shedding new light on the statistics and cases of the deportees. The information is based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the report, 93 percent of all those arrested under the Secure Communities program were Latino. That is a staggering number in of itself, and this alone lends credence that the Latino communities throughout the United States are being targeted.
It gets worse from there. Out of the 226,000 people being held in detention for deportation, one-third of them have American children and/or spouses. What this means is that in many cases whole communities have been torn apart by the Secure Communities program. In other words, the program has done more harm than good for the Latino communities it is supposed to secure. In fact, many of the undocumented were being put into deportation hearings based on their being undocumented rather than having any criminal record. This is the exact opposite of what the Secure Communities program should be doing—to catch the “bad guys.” Equally disturbing is the discovery of 680 cases of deportation proceedings against U.S. citizens. By law, American citizens cannot be arrested nor held in prison or detention centers by immigration. Five of those cases, the report has found, were of U.S. citizens who were locked up for no apparent reason or charge by immigration.
The U.S. government disputes the findings of the report—saying that the findings are exaggerations or half-truths. I find it interesting that the government would say that considering that the report is based on documents, statistics and individual cases kept by the U.S. government itself. Because of this the report is just so damning. Just as equally credible is that the report was put out by two fairly well-known law academic institutions. The Secure Communities program was started by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2008, and expanded under U.S. President Barack Obama. The U.S. government intends to make the Secure Communities program nationwide by 2013. Yet with so many errors, so many people who are not criminals and have no criminal records, and actual U.S. citizens being caught up in this indiscriminate dragnet and locked up, many are saying that the Secure Communities program should be reviewed and even scrapped. At the current rate this is going, it seems doubtful.