Debate over role of local police in immigration enforcement

“Secure Communities,” the federal initiative by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is supposed to find and deport illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. ICE aims to do this by requiring states to forward the fingerprints of people booked by local police to federal immigration officials. But is that how the program really works? More than a fourth of the people deported under the Secure Communities policy have no criminal record at all. Some local law enforcement groups say that if illegal immigrants fear they’ll be deported after interacting with the police, they will avoid calling them, even when crimes are being committed.

Sunita Patel is a staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights. She opposes the Secure Communities program, saying that it violates our constitutional rights. Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration studies, a conservative policy center, explains why he supports deportation under these circumstances.