Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York's participation in the federal government's immigration checking initiative, Secure Communities, is making many immigrants' rights advocates very happy. While the program is supposed to "quickly and accurately identify aliens who are arrested for a crime and booked into local law enforcement custody," a statement from Cuomo's office said, "Based on evidence to date, it appears the program in New York is failing in this regard and is actually undermining law enforcement." Cuomo added, "There are concerns about the implementation of the program as well as its impact on families, immigrant communities and law enforcement in New York."
NY state is the second (Illinois is the first) to make such a move. The Wall Street Journal explains, "Secure Communities began in 2008, when President George W. Bush was in office, and the Obama administration has made it central to immigration enforcement. ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, has stated that the national goal is to have it in place in every U.S. jurisdiction by 2013."
The NY Times reports, "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." However, Mizue Aizeki of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights said, "The program acts like a deportation dragnet. There is just no way to fix it because it puts people into deportation proceedings without due process and puts communities at risk of racial profiling. The governor’s office took seriously these issues.”
The NYCLU's Donna Lieberman said, "It’s a proud moment for this governor, who bucked federal authorities to stand up for basic values against fear mongering and pandering that are at the core of this program. This happened because the program was not what it was cracked up to be and because of the diligent efforts of a whole range of advocates." Make the Road NY, the immigrant advocacy group, issued a statement from former Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau:
"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."
