Michelle Fei

In May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposed the deportation program known as “Secure Communities” (S-Comm) throughout New York State. The news came as a shock to most advocates who had secured an important victory less than a year ago by convincing Governor Andrew Cuomo to suspend the program indefinitely. What happened also serves as a lesson about the challenges of fighting a federal immigration policing regime that few have questioned systematically.

As ICE and its supporters like to tell it, S-Comm is simply a data-sharing program: shortly after arrest, the police send the fingerprints of all arrestees not only to the FBI (which has long been standard practice) but to federal immigration databases as well. Those who ICE suspects of being deportable are then tagged through a “hold,” also known as a detainer. These holds request that local law enforcement delay the release of arrestees in order to give ICE an opportunity to transfer them directly into the deportation system instead of allowing them to return home to their families and communities.

But for immigrant communities and their advocates in New York and across the United States the story is very different. “Secure Communities” represents the antithesis of its Orwellian name. When police officers become de facto immigration agents, communities are fearful of reporting, or cooperating in the investigation of, crimes—thus compromising community safety. At the same time, S-Comm acts as a wide dragnet, sweeping all types of immigrants into the fold (yes, even green card holders, or lawful permanent residents), including those who have minor convictions or those who eventually are found not guilty.

It was in response to revelations that New York State had signed a memorandum of understanding with ICE in 2010 to facilitate the implementation of S-Comm that a coalition of immigrant rights, labor, faith-based, domestic violence, LGBT, family services, criminal justice, anti-trafficking, and civil rights groups came together to fight the program. The members of the New York State Working Group Against Deportation agreed with other advocates across the country that it seemed profoundly unjust for those who had “done nothing wrong” to be deported. Our main point, however, was that all deportations under S-Comm needed to be stopped, as the program’s core function was, and still is, to funnel people into a deportation system that is fundamentally unfair.

The reality is that the U.S. deportation system barely makes a pretense of providing a fair trial. Most people are forced to defend themselves without the help of information, loved ones, or lawyers while locked up in detention centers often thousands of miles away from their homes and with few options available to allow them to stay. Under these conditions, we cannot justify sending anyone into detention and deportation, a system that only compounds and exacerbates the unfairness that many immigrant and low-income communities of color have historically faced through the criminal (in) justice system.

That is why we launched our statewide campaign to protect the rights of all immigrants, regardless of status or criminal record. We recognized that, in this dismal political climate, the mainstream immigrant rights movement had become accustomed to pursuing small changes at best.

The movement has accepted—and has often been at the forefront of promoting—the argument that some immigrants (“the deserving”) are worthy of staying in the United States while others—namely, those with criminal convictions (“the “undeserving”)—deserve deportation. This is why a tagline like “We are not criminals,” which have been popularized in campaigns that argue for the legalization of undocumented immigrants, has become so firmly entrenched. For the mainstream immigrant rights movement, even raising the issue of the rights of immigrants with criminal histories is, at best, a non-starter.

In this regard,  in convincing Governor Cuomo to suspend S-Comm in New York State in June 2011 seemed particularly stunning. However, very quickly the precarious nature of our victory became apparent.

Shortly after New York and a few other states refused to participate in S-Comm, ICE decided to unilaterally withdraw the memoranda of understanding governing the program’s operation that it had campaigned so hard for states to sign, claiming that the agency could and would move forward with activating jurisdictions despite widespread objections. We heard nothing until ICE suddenly and without notice activated S-Comm in the entire state two months ago. We later learned that ICE and the FBI had decided to proceed with making their agencies’ databases interoperable—meaning they could share fingerprints on their own and sidestep New York’s involvement entirely.

Still, we cannot claim surprise at ICE’s persistence in getting New York activated. ICE’s own documents reveal the extent to which activating S-Comm in New York City had been a priority of the highest magnitude for the agency. According to ICE, given that nearly 9% of all those that it labels “criminal aliens” live within the City’s limits, the agency cannot achieve its deportation objectives without having S-Comm “go live” in New York State.

Similarly, the blithe manner with which Obama has demonstrated a commitment to increasing, or at least sustaining, current deportation levels across the United States is hardly surprising. Neither the Administration’s recent lawsuit against Arizona’s harsh immigration law nor the various incarnations of reprieve from deportation for certain populations, such as undocumented youth, has done anything to slow down its deportation apparatus—one so powerful that it brazenly operates with virtually no regard for transparency or accountability. To the contrary, the Administration has made clear that while it will reconsider on a limited basis the deportation of certain populations deemed worthy, such policies only further enable the government to amplify its efforts to deport immense portions of the rest of our immigrant communities.

We would be foolish, then, to expect much from the needed overhaul of laws when Obama seems to maintain such a feverish adherence to the broken immigration system he claims to want to reform. He himself seems to be relying on selling the U.S. public small tweaks while ignoring the big picture.

We need to hold Obama accountable and demand meaningful action. But we should also admit that the path Obama has taken is one that the U.S. immigrant rights movement has been complicit in paving. We in the immigrant rights movement have implicitly and explicitly made it clear that we privilege certain groups over others, and that those immigrants whose lives might present complications can be rather easily disposed of. In other words, we have settled for troubling compromises, instigated divisiveness among immigrant populations, and refused to demand systematic change—all in the name of pragmatism. While we may disagree about the rightfulness or wrongfulness of these efforts, most of us can agree that they have not paid off.

Fighting a huge federal regime from a grassroots level will never be easy. We all know where the balance of power and resources lies. But if we want to fundamentally transform U.S. immigration laws and policies, we need to build an honest consensus about the need to fight for the rights of all immigrants, not just the “easier” cases. Only then can we claim to be serious about engaging in a real fight for and with our country’s immigrants

We, as members of the New York City Council, who represent immigrant communities throughout the city, are disappointed in your decision to deploy Secure Communities in New York City. Implementation of this policy will have devastating effects on the city’s immigrant communities. You should not activate this program in New York.

Since its inception in 2008, the reach of Secure Communities has been overbroad. The goal of the program is to “prioritize the removal of criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety, and repeat immigration violators.”

Yet your data shows that, in fiscal year 2011, 26 percent of all Secure Communities deportations were immigrants with Level 1 convictions, 19 percent of those deported had Level 2 convictions and 29 percent were individuals convicted of Level 3 crimes, which are minor crimes carrying sentences of less than one year. Twenty-six percent of those deported had only immigration violations.

This dragnet approach may lead to the deportation of New Yorkers charged with minor offenses who have lived in this country for more than 10 or 20 years and who have deeply rooted family and community ties. This is wrong.

As you know, in an effort to address the concerns raised by those affected, the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Secure Communities issued a report containing findings and recommendations designed to improve the program in September 2011. Advocates criticized your recent response to that report, which proposed to change little more than the way an individual accused of a traffic violation is treated, as falling far short of what is needed.

We join in that criticism. For example, although the task force recommended that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement improve the transparency of Secure Communities and strengthen accountability mechanisms, there continues to be limited oversight of the program and it remains far too difficult to make a complaint. In light of these facts, we cannot support the program or its activation in the city unless and until the issues raised in the task force report are addressed.

Perhaps most importantly, it is clear to us that the decision to deploy this program in the city will create fear in immigrant communities and corrode the bond between immigrants and the city Police Department. In the city, we have worked to ensure that immigrants feel comfortable accessing local government — in particular, local law enforcement — to report crimes, seek assistance and support their communities.
The deployment of Secure Communities will cause grave damage on all of these fronts. You should reverse your decision to implement Secure Communities in the city.

Christine C. Quinn
Council Speaker
(D-Manhattan)
Daniel Dromm
Chairman
Council Immigration Committee
(D-Jackson Heights)
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Councilwoman
(D-Manhattan)

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
BUFFALO, N.Y.
(photo by Mirela Iverac)

A government program that has state or local police share fingerprints of the people they arrest with federal immigration officials drew protests in New York on Monday, a day ahead of its expansion statewide.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeing the “Secure Communities Program” as a key tool for finding and deporting the criminal illegal aliens that are it’s priority, the agency said.

To opponents, the information-sharing program, introduced in 2008, invites racial profiling, deports people for minor crimes and actually makes communities less secure by cooling relations between immigrants and police.

Those concerns led Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to suspend New York’s participation in the program last June after about half the state’s counties had adopted it. But a law enforcement official familiar with the program said it will launch in the rest of New York, along with Massachusetts, Arkansas and Wyoming, on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the program.

In New York City, about 100 immigrants and activists rallied Monday in protest in front of the Jacob Javits Federal Building. Demonstrators held signs that said “No to Secure Communities. Mobilize to stop the deportations!” and “Immigrants built this country.”

Emma Vidals, a 50-year-old Mexican immigrant who has lived illegally in the United States for 20 years, said she is afraid to call the police.

“I felt safer before. Now with Secure Communities it will be more unsafe for me,” said Vidals, who lives in Staten Island and works cleaning homes. “Less immigrants will call the police. There will be more domestic violence.”

The Associated Press reported in February 2011 that President Barack Obama’s administration pitched Secure Communities participation to local officials as voluntary, until some refused to participate. Then the federal government made it mandatory. Last August, ICE Director John Morton sent a letter to governors terminating agreements with states to clarify that such agreements weren’t necessary as the agency moved to implement the program nationwide by the end of next year.

Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer predicted the program would lead to deportations of thousands of productive and legal immigrants while costing the state millions of dollars.

“A state’s participation in a program that targets its own residents should be left up to local officials and not dictated from on high by Washington,” Stringer said.

Communities routinely send fingerprints taken from people booked into jails or prison to state agencies for criminal records checks and states forward the prints to the FBI to check criminal histories. Under Secure Communities, the FBI shares the prints with the Homeland Security Department to check them against immigration files. Immigration officials then decide whether to pursue removal or other action.

ICE credits the program for the deportation of more than 135,000 convicted criminal aliens. Officials said they’ve made changes to the program in response to states’ concerns, including developing civil rights training for police and creating a public advocate position.

As of May 11, Secure Communities was active in 2,792 jurisdictions in 48 states, with complete coverage in 40 states, ICE said.

——

Associated Press writer Claudia Torrens contributed to this report from New York.

Published May 14, 2012

Opponents of a mandatory federal immigration program called “Secure Communities” began rallying in cities that were the last holdouts in implementing the controversial program.

The protesters included immigrants, civil rights activists and elected officials.

Secure Communities is a controversial program that requires local police to share fingerprints with immigration officials. The federal government has been implementing it in phases, planning eventually to have it in place nationwide.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, sees the program as a tool for finding and deporting undocumented criminals.

Opponents say it can easily lead to profiling and that it actually makes communities less secure by damaging relations between immigrants and police.

“It has been clear from its inception that this program undermines our safety and infringes on our civil rights,” said Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition in a statement. “And yet the criticism goes unheeded by the administration.”

Concerns led New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to suspend the program in June after about half the state’s counties had adopted it. But a law enforcement official familiar with the program said Monday it will launch statewide Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the program.

Over the weekend, William C. Thompson, Jr., a former New York City comptroller who plans to run for mayor in 2013, fired off a letter to President Obama assailing the implementation of Secure Communities in New York.

Thompson, who was the Democratic nominee for mayor in 2009, almost defeating Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said in his letter: “New Yorkers like me believe in strong and safe communities, and anyone who has committed a violent crime and is a threat to the public does not deserve the privilege of living in our great nation.”

But, Thompson added: “Studies show that this program does little to protect our neighborhoods. Instead, it drives many hard-working immigrants into the shadows of our society, thus actually compromising public safety.”

Last week in Boston, immigrant rights activists and representatives from faith, labor and human rights organizations condemned the implementation of the federal immigration program in Massachusetts.

“We’re not going to let the [federal government] impose a program that’s been a complete failure,” said Cristina Aguilera, a campaign organizer with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition or MIRA. “We’re going to hold the Obama administration accountable…our voice is going to be heard.”

Meanwhile, in the state of Washington, immigrant rights groups are lobbying King County officials to stop holding suspected undocumented immigrants in county jails to challenge Secure Communities.

The program was fully activated in Washington state last month. The program has been almost fully activated nationwide, despite protests from some state governors.

This story contains material by the Associated Press.

Facing Legal Limbo, Some Immigrants in NY Have Nowhere Else to Go
Task Force Critical of Secure Communities Program

Politicians and immigration advocates gathered on the steps of City Hall Monday to demand that the Department of Homeland Security halt the activation of a contentious immigration program known as Secure Communities, which goes into effect in New York City on Tuesday.

“Secure Communities takes a dragnet approach,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “Its implementation leads to the deportation of too many immigrants who pose no public safety threat to the City or State of New York or to our country at all.”

The program has already been in effect in 31 counties, including Nassau, Dutchess and Westchester. On Tuesday, the rest of the state, including New York City, will become a part of the program.

Under Secure Communities, when local law enforcement agencies submit fingerprints to the FBI for routine criminal history checks, the prints will be shared with DHS, so that the Immigration and Customs Agency, ICE, can determine if an arrested individual is subject to deportation.

Governor Andrew Cuomo attempted to withdraw the state from the Secure Communities program last June, noting that it failed to meet its stated goal to “deport serious felons.”

But FBI and ICE, officials immediately said that New York counties, which had become a part of the Secure Communities program, could not terminate their participation, because it is essentially an information-sharing program between two federal agencies: the FBI and DHS.

“Secure Communities has proven to be the single most valuable tool in allowing the agency to eliminate the ad hoc approach of the past and focus on criminal aliens and repeat immigration law violators,” an ICE spokesman said in a statement issued last week.

Responding to criticism of the program, ICE has introduced changes to Secure Communities, including taking into custody individuals arrested solely for minor traffic violations if they are convicted and a new policy designed to protect witnesses or victims of domestic violence or other violent crimes.

According to ICE, Secure Communities has helped remove over 135,000 convicted criminal aliens, including more than 49,000 convicted of major violent offenses like murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children.

From January 2011 through March 2012, ICE said it deported 816 people from New York’s 31 counties, including 475 criminal aliens. About 17 percent of those removed were what the agency classifies as Level 1 offenders ― that means they were convicted of aggravated felonies such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children.

Speaker Quinn said on Monday that the numbers for the most serious convictions were too low, and that individuals with no criminal record and low-level offenders were getting caught up in the program. Advocates also argue the program can lead to ethnic and racial profiling and erode the relationship between the police and immigrant communities.

According to Quinn, the City Council would be “drafting legislation to establish parameters on the NYPD’s interaction with ICE.”

A spokesman for the Governor’s office said they were monitoring the developments around the program.

Secure Communities has been activated in 2,792 jurisdictions in 49 states and territories so far.

by Hunter Walker

Former Comptroller and current mayoral candidate Bill Thompson wrote a letter to President Barack Obama today asking him not to implement the controversial Secure Communities fingerprinting program in New York. The  program involves checking fingerprints of people arrested by local or state police in a Department of Homeland Security database that contains immigration records. If an offender is found to be an illegal immigrant police contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which can request for the person to be detained up to 48 hours and taken by federal agents.

“I am writing to ask you to respect the objections of New York State leaders and reverse the position taken by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to fully implement the Secure Communities program in New York,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “Studies show that this program does little to protect our neighborhoods. Instead, it drives many hard-working immigrants into the shadows of our society, thus actually compromising public safety.”

Secure Communities was started in 2008, but states were not required to participate in the program. Last year, ICE officials canceled agreements they signed with the states and announced plans to make Secure Communities nationwide by next year. Opponents of the program, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino argue that Secure Communities results in the deportation of immigrants arrested for minor offenses, raises concerns about racial profiling and damages the relationship between immigrant communities and local law enforcement.

“The decision by ICE to move beyond a pilot program suffers the fatal defect of casting an overly broad dragnet which threatens to arrest, detain, and deport far too many individuals who pose no threat and are in fact working and contributing to our city and state,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “As you know well, New York is extremely proud of its diverse population and draws great strength from the important contributions of all of our immigrants and new arrivals.”

Read the full text of Mr. Thompson’s letter below:

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to ask you to respect the objections of New York State leaders and reverse the position taken by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to fully implement the Secure Communities program in New York.

New Yorkers like me believe in strong and safe communities, and anyone who has committed a violent crime and is a threat to the public does not deserve the privilege of living in our great nation. However, studies show that this program does little to protect our neighborhoods. Instead, it drives many hard-working immigrants into the shadows of our society, thus actually compromising public safety. Given this track record, I strongly believe that New York has acted prudently in declining to participate in this costly and un-American program.

The decision by ICE to move beyond a pilot program suffers the fatal defect of casting an overly broad dragnet which threatens to arrest, detain, and deport far too many individuals who pose no threat and are in fact working and contributing to our city and state. As you know well, New York is extremely proud of its diverse population and draws great strength from the important contributions of all of our immigrants and new arrivals.

With little oversight from Congress and an ever-increasing budget, Secure Communities accomplishes the exact opposite of what it was intended to do, does not serve our interests, and does not reflect the values we share as Americans.

I urge you, Mr. President, to listen to the concerns of many leaders and elected officials of the Empire State, and personally order ICE to desist implementation of this misguided social experiment.

Very truly yours,
William C. Thompson, Jr.

The Obama administration’s Aug. 18 announcement of a new policy that purports to suspend deportations against immigrants without criminal convictions has sprouted a range of reactions from immigrant rights advocates, from full-fledged celebration to wary suspicion.

I can appreciate why some advocates are praising the announcement. First, it does seem true that the national outcry over the failure of immigration reform and the expansion of the deportation program known as “Secure Communities” – which requires police to share fingerprint data of all arrestees with federal immigration authorities — has prompted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to respond with this “new” policy. It’s worth noting, however, that advocates have long sought to get ICE to actually exercise the discretionary powers it has always held. Second, fewer deportations is certainly a good thing. To the extent that this announcement can actually help the small percentage of people who could qualify for a temporary reprieve from deportation, I share the temporary sense of relief of these immigrants. No family should know the devastation of deportation.

But as a lead organizer of the coalition that got New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to pull the state out of the Secure Communities program, I also have seen how much ICE employs divide-and-conquer tactics, engages in manipulative practices and flip-flops back and forth without ever acknowledging its previous position. A federal judge overseeing a public records lawsuit against ICE recently chided the agency for going “out of [its] way to mislead the public” about whether counties and states could opt out of the program; ICE itself has copped to having “a messaging problem.”

So I remain highly skeptical about the potential of this announcement. ICE’s failure to revise its removal quotas – 404,000 this year alone – can only mean that its deportation dragnet will remain just as active. How else can ICE and its private prison industry bedfellows keep detention centers filled?

Call me a cynic, but this move also seems more of a token of appeasement to win votes in the 2012 election than any meaningful shot at reform. Having failed to push through legislation that would allow for the legalization of undocumented youth – much less any other attempt at immigration reform – the administration is terrified of losing the support of Latinos and other groups. Perhaps by throwing a bone to important voting blocs, Obama thinks nobody will notice that ICE has so far kept silent about how this “policy” will be implemented. So far, none of us know how immigrants are supposed to now qualify for work permits or how ICE will conduct case reviews. Even more alarming, many immigrants now mistakenly think they can now get a green card by turning themselves in.

Finally, this announcement just isn’t what many of us have asked for. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. In New York, our coalition has vociferously called for the protection of all immigrants, not just those who can be deemed innocent or low priority. That’s why we continue to firmly object to the targeting of people with criminal convictions.

This position might fly in the face of conventional wisdom about who should and should not be deported. But we cannot accept that people with criminal convictions should be so easily tossed out of our country. They’ve already paid their dues in a criminal justice system that seldomly lives up to its promise of fairness and equality – particularly for those from low-income, ethnic, and immigrant communities.

They don’t deserve a harsh second punishment of permanent exile, particularly through a patently broken and unjust regime that often makes deportation a mandatory minimum and fails to afford immigrants a fair day in court.

Perhaps most importantly, people with criminal convictions still belong with their families and communities, no matter what.

Take, as just one example, a friend of mine who requested that his name not be used. In the fallout of last week’s announcement, he was detained on Monday and put on a plane to Guyana the next night. A long-time green card holder, he served as the primary caretaker for his mother, who has severe diabetes and who requires constant care. His entire family – all U.S. citizens – lives here in this country. He knows no life in Guyana.

But he has an armed robbery conviction from about 15 years ago. And so he was ICE’s first priority for deportation.

I’m pretty certain that, given its announcement, ICE felt that it had even less reason to listen to pleas to stop my friend’s deportation. In the weeks and months and years to come, more and more people like him will get thrown into the deportation machinery, as few object to – and many applaud – ICE’s new policy rather than question why our country so quickly resorts to deporting immigrants who make the same mistakes we all do.

That so many seem to regard the deportation of people with convictions as a desired goal angers and saddens me. But there are those of us who care about all people dealing with deportation, including those with criminal convictions. We care about them proudly and profoundly. And targeting people with convictions for deportation is something we can never be OK with.

For now, our only solace is to commit to continuing to fight hard alongside them and their families for a better future for us all.

Michelle Fei is co-director of the Immigrant Defense Project and member of the New York State Working Group Against Deportation. IMMIGRATION MATTERS features the views of immigration advocates and experts.

Add Massachusetts to the groundswell of states and localities opposing President Obama’s misconceived and failing immigration dragnet.

Gov. Deval Patrick announced on Monday that his state would not participate in Secure Communities, the fingerprint-sharing program that the Obama administration wants to impose nationwide by 2013. Gov. Andrew Cuomo halted New York’s involvement last week. Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois rejected it last month. They join a long list of elected officials, Congress members and law-enforcement professionals who want nothing to do with the program for the simple reason that it does more harm than good.

The program sends the fingerprints of every person booked by state or local police to federal databases to be checked for immigration violations. It was supposed to focus on dangerous felons. But it catches mostly noncriminals and minor offenders, as New York said, “compromising public safety by deterring witnesses to crime and others from working with law enforcement.”

For years Mr. Obama, like George W. Bush before him, has relentlessly pushed forward with immigration enforcement schemes while failing to give any relief to millions desperate to shed their illegal status.

Real reform requires a comprehensive strategy: stricter enforcement plus legalization for the millions whom it would be foolish to uproot from our society and economy. As Mr. Obama has driven deportations to record levels, he has gotten no closer to fixing a failed system. But he has made Republican hard-liners happy by bolstering the noxious argument that all undocumented immigrants are mere criminals, deportees-in-waiting.

This is a failure of decency and good sense. It merely punishes and does nothing to actually come to grips with the problem of illegal immigration. Resistance has mostly been heard at the ground level, from immigrants and advocates who say families are being split apart, workers frightened and exploited, the American dream dishonored. So it’s good to hear powerful Democrats — Mr. Obama’s friends and allies from large states — telling him that with Secure Communities he has gone way overboard.

What these states’ actions mean, practically speaking, is unclear. States like New York signed contracts with the Department of Homeland Security to enter Secure Communities, and now the administration insists that they must participate. If they send suspects’ fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for criminal checks — as states must and will continue to do routinely — then the F.B.I. will share that data with the Department of Homeland Security. There is no way to opt out.

We’ll see about that. The idea that the federal government can commandeer states’ resources for its enforcement schemes seems ripe for legal challenge. And it’s wrong to make state and local police departments the gatekeepers of immigration enforcement. It should not be up to local cops to drive federal policy by deciding which neighborhoods and people are the focus of their crackdowns.

We welcome the votes of no-confidence in Secure Communities. The message is clear and growing louder: Mr. Obama and the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, need to try something else. That something else is real immigration reform that combines a path to legality with necessary measures to secure our borders and deport real criminals who are here illegally.

For immediate release: June 1, 2011
Contact: (212) 403-1223

I strongly support Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s courageous decision to suspend New York’s participation in Secure Communities pending a review of the program.  I have long been concerned about the issues that arise when local police indiscriminately share information with federal immigration authorities. Specifically, cooperation with federal immigration officials creates a lack of trust in law enforcement among the public. This makes it hard for police and prosecutors to do their jobs because immigrants become reluctant to report crimes or cooperate with investigations. That is why, during the 35 years I was district attorney in Manhattan, my policy was to never share the names of individuals involved with the criminal justice system to immigration authorities until after they were convicted of a serious crime. Programs like Secure Communities, which require automatic immigration database checks for people arrested by local police upon booking, magnify the problems I tried so hard to avoid.

About a year ago, I drafted an editorial in the Wall Street Journal calling for a more nuanced approach to the cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration officials. I am now encouraged that the Governor and other elected officials around the country share my concerns and are taking a critical look at overbroad state and local immigration enforcement cooperation programs like Secure Communities.

New York state law enforcement officials have no obligation to spend time and resources, and endanger their critical mission of keeping our communities safe, to enforce federal immigration law. The Governor’s decision to suspend New York’s participation in the Secure Communities program is an important step toward separating the roles of local police and federal immigration authorities in the eyes of the public, and also protecting New Yorkers from suffering often cruel and unfair treatment in the federal immigration system.

Photo by Marcus Yam for The New York Times

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he was suspending New York’s participation in a federal immigration enforcement plan that has drawn fire from immigrant advocates, civil liberties lawyers and elected officials in the state and around the country.

A statement from Mr. Cuomo’s office said there was “mounting evidence” that the program, called Secure Communities, had not only failed to meet its goal of deporting the most serious immigrant criminals but was also undermining law enforcement and compromising public safety.

“There are concerns about the implementation of the program as well as its impact on families, immigrant communities and law enforcement in New York,” Mr. Cuomo said. Unless those concerns are eased, the statement said, New York will not take part.

Mr. Cuomo’s decision makes New York the second state to announce its intention to withdraw from the program, and sets up a confrontation with the Obama administration, which has made Secure Communities a cornerstone of immigration enforcement strategy. Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois said in May that he was canceling his state’s participation.

Under the program, begun by the Bush administration in 2008, the fingerprints of everyone booked into a local or county jail are sent to the Department of Homeland Security and compared with prints in its files. If officials find that a suspect is in the country illegally, or is a noncitizen with a criminal record, they may seek to deport the person.

By Wednesday, that fingerprint sharing had been introduced in about 41 percent of the nation’s jurisdictions, including 27 of 62 counties in New York. Mr. Cuomo’s move means that those counties’ participation will end. The entire country is scheduled to join the program by 2013.

The practical effects of Mr. Cuomo’s decision are unclear. New York law enforcement agencies regularly check fingerprints with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Homeland Security officials said that regardless of New York’s participation in Secure Communities, the F.B.I. would still share fingerprints with the immigration agency.

Federal officials said that if states did not share fingerprints with the F.B.I., those states would lose access to federal criminal databases, undermining their ability to fight crime.

While Secure Communities has contributed to a sharp rise in deportations under President Obama, it does not appear to have won him many allies. It has angered immigrants who supported Democrats in recent elections. It has also failed to convince many of the president’s Republican opponents that he is sufficiently committed to enforcement.

Opponents of the program contend that even though it was mainly intended to ensnare convicted criminals and people deemed a security threat, it has instead caught too many immigrants charged with low-level crimes or guilty only of being in the country illegally. This pattern, the opponents argue, has driven immigrants deeper into the shadows and deterred them from helping officials fight crime.

In addition, critics have assailed the rollout of Secure Communities, which has been plagued by seemingly contradictory statements about how it works and whether local and state participation is voluntary.

Mylan L. Denerstein, counsel to Mr. Cuomo, cited these concerns in a letter on Wednesday.

“Until the numerous questions and controversies regarding the program can be resolved, we have determined that New York is best served by relying on existing tools to ensure the safety of its residents, especially given our overriding concern that the current mechanism is actually undermining law enforcement,” Ms. Denerstein wrote to John Sandweg, counsel to Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary.

Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of Homeland Security that oversees Secure Communities, said it was reviewing the program to make sure it focused on criminals.

Immigrant advocates praised Mr. Cuomo. “It is clear the tide is turning” against Secure Communities, said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Los Angeles. “It’s high time for the president to terminate the program before any further damage is done to our communities.”