Former Miami mayor votes against adopting Secure Communities recommendations

By JUAN GASTELUM
Channel: Immigration

Former Miami mayor Manny Diaz was the only dissenting voice on Thursday when the Homeland Security Advisory Council voted to adopt the recommendations of a task force assigned to evaluate the Secure Communities program.

Univision talked to Diaz about the program just before the council met via teleconference to deliberate.

“It’s been taken to an extreme when that was never the objective,” he said.

Under Secure Communities, arrestees’ fingerprints are checked against the FBI’s criminal databases and shared with the Department of Homeland Security, which then runs them through its own database of immigration violations.

Critics argue the program — which is aimed at identifying dangerous criminals — has resulted in the deportations of thousands of people who were arrested on minor infractions. They say it creates a rift between local law enforcement and the communities they are meant to protect since immigrants are less likely to report illicit behavior if they feel they run the risk of being identified.

The task force created by ICE director John Morton earlier this year to address those concerns delivered a highly critical review, saying the program had missed its mark and sown mistrust in the community.

Even so, five of the 19 members resigned from the board rather than agree with all of the findings, including representatives from the National Immigration Forum, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Government Employees.

The recommendations of the task force are summarized below:

- ICE must clarify the goals and parameters of the Secure Communities program, and relay them to participating jurisdictions, as well as the communities they serve.

- ICE must improve the transparency of the program.

- ICE must implement mechanisms to ensure that Secure Communities adheres to its stated objective of prioritizing those who pose a risk to public safety or national security.

- ICE should clarify that individuals with minor offense are not the top priority unless they pose a serious risk public safety or national security.

- DHS must exercise prosecutorial discretion in all immigration enforcement endeavors and take steps to train and monitor field officers and attorneys as they implement departmental policies.

- DHS must strengthen accountability mechanisms, including remedies for and prevention of civil rights and civil liberties violations.

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