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Secure Communities Program

Secure Communities Program

As New York Debates Secure Communities Program, Study Challenges Controversial Policy to Deport Immigrant Prisoners

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. Ref. Source 5

Secure Communities Program

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