Senate Candidate Jeff Bailey Supports Secure Communities ... Do You? (P0ll)

Editor's note: The following was submitted for publication by Holly Robichaud of Jeff Bailey's campaign for state senate.

Jeff Bailey, Republican candidate for State Senate in the Bristol and Norfolk District, which includes Foxborough, praised the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for launching the Secure Communities program in Massachusetts despite the objections of Governor Deval Patrick.

“It is about time that our state implemented this important program to keep our citizens,” said Bailey.

The objective of Secure Communities is to identify all deportable foreign nationals who are arrested by local law enforcement agencies for local, state and federal crimes. The program removes aliens, who commit crimes in addition to immigration violates, from our country. Due to pressure from Gov. Patrick, Massachusetts has been one of a few states that has refused to implement the program and the legislature has failed to legislative require the Patrick administration to accept it.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimate there are 1.9 million criminal illegal immigrants in our country and 24,000 at-large in Massachusetts. The city of Boston did implement a test program that identified 2,500 aliens have been identified and 293 removed as a result.

“I am still puzzled how the Governor could justify allowing criminal illegal immigrants stay in the Commonwealth," Bailey said. "This is a matter of public safety and our legal residents deserve to be protected. We are not talking about people being deported for parking tickets. We are talking about serious crimes such as drunk driving which has resulted in deaths."

Bailey's campaign describes the State Senate candidate as a community leader, pastor, former teacher, concerned taxpayer and most importantly a devoted husband and father. For the past 23 years, Bailey has served as Senior Pastor for Attleboro’s Grace Baptist Church. In 2001, he established the Grace Baptist Christian Academy.

So Foxborough we want to know what do think?