From Democracy Now! today:
A battle is brewing in New York over the Secure Communities Program, a controversial federal immigration enforcement policy that requires local police to forward fingerprints of every person they arrest to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. New York Gov. David Paterson has approved a Secure Communities agreement, but is facing heavy opposition. We speak to Aarti Shahani, author of a new study that challenges this policy. She found that for immigrant prisoners arrested on drug charges and detained at Rikers Island prison in New York City, suspects charged with lower-level crimes were selected for deportation more often than those charged with serious felonies. In other words, while Homeland Security claims to be targeting dangerous criminals for deportation, the study found no correlation between the level of offense committed and being targeted for deportation.
Full interview available here.
Oh wow! So the kids selling cupcakes in the NY park WOULD go to jail. Cool!
Police came with the dog-drug sniffers into my son’s classrooml yesterday during a math test. DURING A MATH TEST.
I am saving my fire for when the ACLU gets the pending lawsuit going for all the fees we’ve been charged over the years for an education that is supposed to be free.
Then I can’t wait to bend ears with the dog thing and find out what ***Civil Liberties they’re denying with that crap. They do these “searches” on a routine but surprise basis – JUST IN CASE some kid might have some pot. Burbank police are known for having nothing to do but make trouble with kids. NOTHIN.
I think it’s called INTIMIDATION.
Legally a ‘violation’ is on par with a traffic ticket; such as J-walking or vending without a license. Usually the only thing done is an appearance ticket is issued. So this is pretty twisted.
well, the bigger issue according to the story is that homeland security is claiming to use the prints to deport “dangerous” illegal immigrant prisoners, whereas on the ground that does not appear to be the case.
and apparently the proceedings for those in jail awaiting trial for very minor things is costing taxpayers a lot of money:
“So let me give you an example. I get arrested on a violation. A violation is even smaller than a misdemeanor. I’m at Rikers Island. On average, for a violation, I would spend no more than— on average, I would spend two days in Rikers Island, my case would be processed, I’d get a slap on the wrist, and I’d leave. Now, if a judge deems that I’m eligible for bail on my violation, but Homeland Security has requested that I get put in deportation after my proceedings, New York City is going to keep me in jail the entire duration of my case, which is on average a little less than a month long. So, these additional days where I’m being denied bail on my pretrial case is driving up the cost for New York City. And we found that when you control for race and when you control for offense level, on average people are spending 73 additional days in jail. That’s the associated on average increase in jail time with a detainer issuance. And that additional 73 days, on average, is a cost being absorbed by New York City. And New York City didn’t have a clue about it. “
I don’t think this is new. I’ve been arrested and printed three times (for journalism). Every time i got printed, they’ve taken three copies, and one of those copies goes to the FBI. They have all been for violations or misdemeanors, such as simple trespass (such as for covering meetings people didn’t want me at). Fingerprints have gone to the FBI forever; Arlo jokes about this in Alice’s Restaurant….”somewhere in a file in Washington…”
Please also keep in mind that creating a large, superfluous data base that requires maintenance and accessability serves to justify and perpetuate a bureaucracy.