VivirLatino

While D.C. is focused on the DREAM, in NY today, eyes shift to a different but equally important immigration matter : the criminalization of migrants and the merging of local police with Federal enforcement efforts.

This morning, at the same time that a cloture vote on DREAM is expected in the Senate, there is going to be a rally in front of Governor Paterson’s Manhattan office today to demand rescission of New York’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bring a deportation program called “Secure Communities” to New York State.

With no public input, New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services signed an agreement with ICE in May this year to bring Secure Communities to New York. Under the program, law enforcement agencies in the state are required to automatically forward to federal immigration databases the fingerprints of every arrested person. Undocumented immigrants, US citizens, and lawful permanent residents alike are subject to these database checks. Based on often unreliable and incomplete information, ICE then transfers people suspected of being deportable directly into the detention and deportation system, separating them from their families and communities.
Read more…