Governor Patrick latest to reject Secure Communities

Despite Governor Deval Patrick’s refusal to endorse the Secure Communities program, it is anticipated that the US government will attempt to force the state of Massachusetts to comply with the controversial system designed to detect and deport illegal immigrants.A senior Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Boston Globe last week that the governor can do little to stop the program’s rollout statewide by 2013, saying he has no legal basis to halt it.

The program requires that the fingerprints of every person held in local or county jails are sent to the Department of Homeland Security and compared with fingerprints in their files. If the person is in the country illegally, or is not a citizen and has a criminal record, they may then be deported.

After initially pledging in December to sign the agreement, Governor Patrick then held a series of forums across the state to gauge public opinion. Following these consultations, he has now indicated that though he agrees with the program’s aim to apprehend violent criminals, he has concerns it will affect innocent people.

“We are reluctant to participate if the program is mandatory and unwilling to participate if it is voluntary,” said Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and Security Mary Heffernan, in a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this week.Governor Patrick said the program could discourage immigrants from reporting crimes.

“We run a serious risk of ethnic profiling and frankly fracturing incredibly important relationships in communities that are important for law enforcement.’’ he said.Secure Communities currently operates in 42 states, with the Obama administration looking for a countrywide rollout by 2013. It was first adopted in Boston as a pilot scheme in 2006, with the city of Boston being the only Massachusetts jurisdiction to thus far use it. According to Freedom of Information figures, 53% of people deported since November of 2008 were not criminal offenders. This has led to widespread fear in immigrant communities that local police will, in effect, be operating as extensions of ICE should the program be fully implemented.Governor Patrick now joins New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo in refusing to back the program, with Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois saying in May that he was canceling his state’s participation.

In New York State, some 31 counties had participated in the program since January, before Governor Cuomo opted to suspend it. Forty-five aliens had been removed since then, yet eighty percent of those removed had not previously been convicted of a crime.The Obama administration deported a record 393,000 people last year, with watchdogs claiming that a quota of 400,000 had been set. The administration denies this.