In November 2010 I wrote a diary entitled Obama's DHS acts to extend Arizona-style anti-immigrant policy nationwide. Although it seemed for a while that the president would rein in the abuses of that program, the opposite has occurred.
We are all aware of the extent to which the Republicans have demonized immigrants, but the "Secure Communities" program about which I wrote started with Bush but it has now become the centerpiece of Obama policy on immigrants. While Republicans openly celebrate their contempt for the most voiceless and powerless among us, our own Democratic president has quietly been supporting a program that is little different than those advocated by people like Jan Brewer or Joe Arpaio. This program, which has already led to the deportation of a million undocumented people since January 2009, has been all but ignored by the media yet it continues to expand and will take effect in New York state tomorrow.
While the attention of many progressive US citizens is taken up with issues that directly affect them like marriage equality, health care and women's rights, this attack on the the non-citizens who do the most thankless work in this society has been relentless.
In brief, here's what Secure Communities requires: Every suspected illegal immigrant encountered by the police must be fingerprinted and held while personal data is sent to DHS. If the person is deemed illlegal, they are quickly deported.
Obviously, this program requires racial profiling to work. There is no way everyone stopped for every minor offense can be held and fingerprinted, so clearly a triage process will identify people who "look illegal." How different is that from Arizona's SB1070?
Albor Ruiz, writing in yesterday's New York News, says:
In a brave gesture Gov. Cuomo, nearly a year ago, unsuccessfully tried to remove the state from the deportation program that is also strongly opposed by law enforcement officials and domestic violence groups across the country.
These groups correctly believe Secure Communities undermines public safety by compromising the trust between police and the communities they serve, in addition to encouraging racial profiling, separating families and even deports U.S. citizens.
Despite the criticism, the calls for reform or for ending it, and Cuomo’s concern, the Obama administration has continued imposing the fundamentally flawed program in blatant disregard of the human cost and dire consequences.
Andrew Cuomo has been both an example and a strong ally of the President. He did not need to evolve on the issue of marriage equality. He faced the worst budget in decades and pushed through painful cuts - and unlike the host of Blue Dogs, he never blamed the president for the horrendous economic conditions. He stood by Obama's side only last week as the president toured the SUNY Nanotech facilities here in Albany.
And with all that, Obama ignored Cuomo's plea to allow the state to opt out of the Secure Communities initiative. This is evidently one policy that truly matters to this administration and even the fine print of existing laws can be brushed aside to put it into effect.
The Secure Communities program when it was passed under Bush, you see, contained a provision that allowed states to opt out - and theoretically that option still exists. But in reality, states that choose not to profile possible illegal immigrants and send their prints and other data to Homeland Security will be denied all kinds of federal benefits. One of the most severe penalties for any state that opts out is that its police forces will no longer have access to federal databases, such as the FBI's, which would have a totallly unacceptable impact on fighting real crimes.
Ruiz confesses his bewilderment, as I do, over:
why despite all the talk by Obama about focusing ICE's efforts on dangerous criminals, the agency continues its absurd policy of pursuing low-level offenders, inclduing immigrants convicte dof minor trafffic offenses.
According to the ACLU, over 46,000 parents of US citizen children were deported in only the first half of 2011, resulting in over 5000 children being placed in foster care. Judging by anecdotal reports, it is possible that the parents of many of those 5000 were hustled across the border so quickly there was no chance for them to take their children with them.
New York is not Arizona or Alabama. Our state legislature is not packed with racist yahoos and they are fighting back. A week ago 38 state lawmakers wrote to Governor Cuomo urging him to keep New York out of this program, whatever the consequences. Today at 11 am, a group of New York City Council members led by mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn will speak out against the mandate on the steps of City Hall. A rally at 26 Federal Plaza will follow. If you can, be there and make your voice heard.