ICE Continues to Ignore the Danger in S-Comm
Last Friday, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a report outlining how it will continue to push forward with the "Secure Communities" program (S-Comm). The report published on the ICE website was in response to the agency task force that recommended changes to the seriously flawed program. It comes as no surprise that ICE largely disregarded the issues that originally spurred the need for the task force's review, such as a lack of transparency, conflicting messaging, co-option of local police agencies and disregard for community policing.
In its report, ICE outlined how it would continue to move forward with S-Comm, including the deportation of individuals for minor traffic offenses. Such measures have been loudly condemned for encouraging racial profiling (see AFL-CIO and National Immigration Forum’s letter to DHS) and pulling apart working families.
The Applied Reseach Center’s report published last fall, "Shattered Families:The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System" demonstrated how enforcement programs like S-Comm have led to at least 5,100 U.S. citizen children ending up in the foster care system while not helping to fix our broken immigration system.
Last week as the country heard news of the Obama Administrations challenges to Arizona’s SB 1070 in the Supreme Court, communities reaffirmed their campaigns to end S-Comm and the similar effects it is having across the country. On Wednesday, April 25th, El Centro Presente’s Just Communities Campaign in Boston held a rally and press conference to ask local authorities to end the ‘Arizonafication’ of the country through the S-Comm program. Friday, the same day ICE released their report spelling out their business as usual approach to S-Comm, DC Jobs with Justice, the National Day Laborers Network, LiUNA, and others held a press conference, calling on ICE to end, not mend S-Comm. And Portland Jobs with Justice and the ACT for Justice and Dignity campaign continued their work to end S-Comm after a recent resolution was passed by the Multnomah County Commissioners denouncing the program.
