Plymouth Politicians Support Secure Communities Program

Plymouth County is online and ready to begin immediate participation when the federal Secure Communities program is implemented in Massachusetts next Tuesday, Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. said today.

Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced yesterday that the state would finally join the nationwide system, which allows law enforcement to check the fingerprints of individuals in custody after being arrested.

"This program is vital to protect law abiding citizens and immigrants from predatory criminal aliens," McDonald said. "I am glad to see this sensible step forward in allowing us to identify lawbreakers that, until now, may have been hiding in plain sight."

The decision to add Massachusetts to the nationwide program came as a surprise to many. Sheriff McDonald, along with sheriffs from Bristol and Worcester County, had been working for more than two years to gain access to the ICE database. The sheriffs also obtained the support of Senator Scott Brown to convince ICE officials to move up participation in the program.

Secure Communities had been criticized by Governor Deval Patrick and others opposed to public safety efforts to more readily identify criminal aliens living in Massachusetts.

According to the Boston Globe, Patrick has "expressed concerns of it opening the door to racial profiling. Patrick said the program will result in increased fear in minority communities.

According to a spokesman from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 44 states and Puerto Rico have now implemented the information sharing program.

Federal officials have said the program doesn't authorize local police departments to enforce immigration law.

ICE's website explains Secure Communities as "a simple and common sense way to carry out ICE's priorities.

It uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helps to identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement. For decades, local jurisdictions have shared the fingerprints of individuals who are arrested or booked into custody with the FBI to see if they have a criminal record. Under Secure Communities, the FBI automatically sends the fingerprints to ICE to check against its immigration databases. If these checks reveal that an individual is unlawfully present in the United States or otherwise removable due to a criminal conviction, ICE takes enforcement action – prioritizing the removal of individuals who present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by the severity of their crime, their criminal history, and other factors – as well as those who have repeatedly violated immigration laws

Debra Betz, a Plymouth School Committee member and candidate for state representative of the 12th Plymouth District came out in support of the initiative as well in an email statement to her supporters

"Secure Communities is common sense policy," the statement reads. "It uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helps to identify criminal illegals without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement." 

Last September, Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, threw her support behind the initiative.

Murray also said she agreed with a group of Republican county sheriffs pushing for tools to perform immigration checks on inmates, adding that most county jails already implement a “system of biometrics” to verify the status of prisoners.

"I don’t understand why you wouldn’t check the status of people coming into your criminal justice system," the Plymouth Democrat said on WATD 95.9 last September.

McDonald said jail officials will now be able to compare the fingerprints of anyone being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility and notify federal officials of matches almost immediately.