(KUOW)
Liz Jones
07/12/2011
Two more counties in Washington state are set to activate a controversial immigration program Tuesday. KUOW’s Liz Jones reports.
Audio: Link to clip
TRANSCRIPT
The program is called Secure Communities. It allows local authorities to share fingerprints of people booked into jail with federal immigration agents. It’s meant to boost deportation of serious criminals, but critics argue tens of thousands of people deported so far were never convicted of a crime.
Until recently, Washington was one of only a few states with zero participation in the program. But within the past couple months, 13 counties have asked to join in. Yakima County became the first to activate it last month. Now, Franklin and Lewis counties are coming online.
Steve Mansfield is sheriff of Lewis County. He thinks Secure Communities will improve public safety by removing undocumented criminals from his community.
Mansfield: “And that’s not racist, and I’m not singling people out, I’m not profiling them. Everyone that comes in the jail gets the fingerprints run through the system. It goes to the state database, the national database, then it’s accessed by immigration and they can make a decision if this is a person of interest to them. And it’s just a little bit better than what we had before.”
It’s better, Mansfield says, because it expedites the process between local and federal authorities. But immigrant advocates see that as part of the problem.
Charlie McAteer is with the advocacy group, One America. He says people booked into jail are swept into deportation proceedings before they’re convicted of any crime. He fears the program will erode trust between immigrants and police.
McAteer: “People in the immigrant community will think twice before picking up the phone to call the police or dialing 9–1–1. They’ll think twice about being a witness in another case that’s affected citizens, for example.”
Jones: “How do you know that?”
McAteer: “Because we’re hearing it from the community.”
McAteer says immigrants are worried if they report a crime, they might be asked about their legal status or taken to jail for questioning.
Federal officials recently acknowledged Secure Communities may cast too wide of a net. An internal review of the program is underway. I’m Liz Jones, reporting.