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Napolitano counters Secure Communities claimsembraced by Gov. Patrick

By Kyle Cheney / State House News Service | Wednesday, October 5, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | LocalPolitics

Photo by AP/Angela Rowlings (file)

Acknowledging a botched beginning to the federal Secure Communities program, the nations top homelandsecurity official on Wednesday contradicted claims made by detractors and called the effort the single best toolat focusing our immigration enforcement resources on criminals and egregious immigration law violators.

Termination of this program would do nothing to decrease the amount of enforcement. It would only weakenpublic safety, and move the immigration enforcement system back towards the ad hoc approach where non-criminal aliens are more likely to be removed than criminals, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitanosaid in remarks delivered at American University.

Secure Communities, which has become the focal point of a heated debate in Massachusetts over illegalimmigration, is a data-sharing program between the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, anagency in the Department of Homeland Security. Under the program, the FBI crosschecks its fingerprintdatabase which includes prints collected from police departments across the country with immigration

databases to identify illegal immigrants arrested by state and local police.

At the heart of criticism lobbed by Patrick and advocates for the immigrant community are claims that theprogram fails to distinguish between serious, often violent offenders and those who may be in the countryillegally but present no public safety threat. Napolitano took on those arguments during her speech, describingthem as unfounded and contrary to reality.

It makes sense to prioritize our finite resources on removing a Mexican citizen who is wanted for murder in hishome country ahead of a Mexican national who is the sole provider for his American citizen spouse, she said.It makes sense to remove a Costa Rican man convicted of sexual assault against a minor before we spend the

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time and money to send a mother back to her violent and abusive husband in Jamaica, separating her from herAmerican-born children; finally, it makes sense to prioritize resources on the removal of a Chinese manconvicted of aggravated assault and weapons offenses before removing a 10th grade student who was broughtto this country when he was a child.

Napolitanos comments put her directly at odds with Gov.Deval Patrick, who has argued the opposite: thatSecure Communities focus on deporting arrested illegal immigrants would inadvertently net less seriousoffenders or those without criminal backgrounds at all. In the face of criticism from program supporters, Patrickhas taken a hands-off approach to Secure Communities, pointing out that federal officials intend to expand it toevery jurisdiction in the country by 2013 and that states have no say in the matter. He has also pointed out thatMassachusetts already sends all fingerprints it collects to the FBI, which will share them with ICE as soon asSecure Communities is activated in Massachusetts.

"The only issue that Secure Communities is about is whether one federal agency can share information withanother federal agency, the governor said during a radio appearance last week. They dont need a governorto tell them that.

Patrick called the push for Secure Communities a terrific political issue that stirs people up. But he said hiscritics including three Republican sheriffs who blasted Patrick at a State House press conference last week are misguided.

We already send all of our fingerprints to Washington. We sent all our convictions to Washington ... Thefingerprints go to the fingerprint people. ICE takes it from there. The federal government doesnt needgovernors or sheriffs for that matter to, say, share information. he said. The interesting thing is, [the sheriffs]are doing nothing more than we are doing already, but with the big exception of grabbing headlines.

Patricks critics, primarily Republicans, have ripped the governor, contending that his skepticism of the programhas made Massachusetts a magnet for illegal immigrants. They frequently point to recent violent deaths inMassachusetts, allegedly at the hands of undocumented residents, as proof of the need for SecureCommunities to come online in the Bay State.

Backers of the program say it is intended only to target the most serious offenders, often repeat violentcriminals without legal residency in the country.

The reality is that the immigration enforcement agencies will always encounter more aliens than they canpossibly pursue in a given year. Secure Communities hasnt increased the number of individuals who areremoved, but it has helped change the composition helping ICE to dramatically increase the number ofconvicted criminals and egregious immigration law violators, Napolitano said, adding that the program nowoffers training to state and local law enforcement.

Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) this week called the issue of illegal immigrants driving without licenses apretty prevalent problem on our streets. During his South Shore radio program Monday night, Hedlund said,The courts dont want to do anything about it and the police cant do anything about it because they dontwant to take the three hours it is to process someone if you arrest them.

Saying American drivers arrested for driving without a license face surcharges and court appearances,

Hedlund called it just a crazy, crazy double standard right now.

Hedlund expressed frustration that attempts by the state Senate to pass measures cracking down on driving byunlicensed individuals and other problems relating to illegal immigration have faltered. Weve passed all thisstuff in the Senate, overwhelmingly, multiple times now, he said. The House doesnt take it up and thegovernors against it.

Napolitano said President Obama inherited a broken immigration system badly in need of reforms.

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Congress hasnt acted and states continue to pass a patchwork of their own laws in an attempt to fill the void,she said. It is this Administrations position that Congress needs to take up immigration reform once and for all.We have put forward our ideas and are ready to act quickly and collaboratively to support passage of reformsthat make sense.

Napolitano said the Obama administration has achieved record levels of immigration law enforcement whileprioritizing removals of convicted criminals, recent border crossers, egregious immigration law violators andimmigration fugitives.

Estimating 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, each with dramatically differentstories, she added, There has never been, nor will there be in these tight fiscal times, sufficient resources toremove all of those unlawfully in the country.

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