ICE nabs 111,000 criminal illegal aliens in one year

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the Secure Communities initiative nabbed more than 111,000 criminal illegal aliens since its inception one year ago.

The debut program is a partnership between ICE and local law enforcement agencies that uses biometrics to identify and remove criminal aliens.

Secure Communities operates jointly between DHS, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and participating law enforcement agencies to check the digital fingerprints of illegals arrested and booked into local level against DHS “biometrics-based immigration records in addition to FBI databases." This process allows ICE to take appropriate action to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens are not released back into communities.

The new law enforcement tool classifies illegal immigrants into three categories; level one crime includes murder, rape and kidnapping; level two and three include burglary and property type of crimes.

The first year of Secure Communities netted approximately 11,000 undocumented aliens with level one crimes, DHS also claims 1,900 of those criminals have already been deported.

“Secure Communities is one of the programs that enhance our efforts to keep the peace in the largest urban area in Texas,” said Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia. “My department was the first local law enforcement agency in the country to adopt the program.”

Now, a year later, the Sheriff’s department continues to use the program as a ‘safety net’ to help identify inmates who, have been placed in custody for allegedly committing a crime under state law.

In a statement from DHS, Secretary Janet Napolitano said, “Secure Communities provides our local partners with an effective tool to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety. We will continue to expand these partnerships to provide a force multiplier for ICE's immigration enforcement efforts across the country.”

Due to the success of the new program, DHS projected that every state will have these tools to combat undocumented aliens who commit crimes by 2011. Each county across the country will be categorized into jurisdictions with the highest volume of dangerous criminals, those counties will receive assistance from DHS first.

For more information on the program; http://www.ice.gov

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