Advocacy groups are suing the federal government to uncover records related to the Secure Communities program, which has come under fire locally this week for a case involving a Prince George’s County woman.
Under the program, jails check fingerprints of those arrested with biometrics-based immigration records held by the Department of Homeland Security and criminal records held by the FBI. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to expand the program nationwide by 2013.
“Contrary to its name, this latest ICE program makes the public less safe,” said Sunita Patel, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group. “There is no doubt that the program has and will continue to deepen fear and mistrust of the police in our communities.”
Locally, Arlington, Loudoun, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties and Alexandria recently joined the program. Prince William County, Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince George’s counties also participate.
Montgomery County sends the name of inmates detained for violent crimes to ICE weekly.
D.C. Councilmen Jim Graham and Phil Mendelson are planning to introduce a bill next week that would keep D.C. police from implementing Secure Communities.
The bill would “codify the long-standing and existing policy that local police do not get involved with immigration,” said Brian DeBose, a spokesman for Graham.
Advocates protested this week outside the Prince George’s County Department Of Corrections over the illegal immigration case of 26-year-oldFlorinda Fabiola Lorenzo-Desimilian. She was arrested for allegedly selling telephone cards without a license in her home and was transferred to ICE after a check revealed she may have been in the country illegally.
