Judge Says Feds Have ‘Misled the Public’ on Controversial Immigration Program - ProPublica

[WillyT]

Judge Says Feds Have ‘Misled the Public’ on Controversial Immigration Program
by Marian Wang - ProPublica
ProPublica, July 14, 2011, 10:43 a.m.

<snip>

Federal immigration authorities must hand over potentially embarrassing documents related to the implementation of a controversial immigration program, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York ordered this week. According to Judge Shira Scheindlin, federal immigration authorities seem to “have gone out of their way to mislead the public” about the program known as Secure Communities, and they’ve issued mixed messages about whether the program is optional or not.

Secure Communities allows state and local law enforcement to share the fingerprints of their arrestees with the FBI and Homeland Security for the purpose of targeting for deportation immigrants who’ve committed serious crimes. Immigration advocates say that the three-year-old program nets individuals accused of minor offenses and also undermines trust between communities and law enforcement.

New York, Massachusetts and Illinois have already announced they intend to opt out of the program, leaving local authorities free to decide whether their counties should participate. California is considering doing the same.

But as the judge’s latest ruling indicates, it’s long been unclear whether these states will actually be able to opt out. Documents released earlier this year showed that the program—once widely believed to be voluntary—may not have been so voluntary after all, as the Associated Press reported in February:

A voluntary program to run all criminal suspects' fingerprints through an immigration database was only voluntary until cities refused to participate, recently released documents show. The Obama administration then tightened the rules so that cities had no choice but to have the fingerprints checked.

<snip>

More: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/judge-blames-feds-for-misleading-the-public-on-immigration-program

:wtf:

:kick:

[Mojorabbit]

1. WTF? nt

[Mojorabbit]

2. Kicking because it is important. nt

[kickysnana]

3. kick n/t

[Toucano]

4. kick

[pampango]

5. A lot of Democratic states (MA for one) are opting out though repubs are pushing it.

It will be interesting to see how the voluntary/involuntary contradiction is resolved.