Providence Wants Out of S-Comm

Gregory Smith writes for the Rhode Island News:

The city administration has asked that it be allowed not to participate in Secure Communities, a controversial federal program in which criminal suspects arrested by the police are checked to see if they are subject to deportation or other enforcement action by immigration officials.

Secure Communities will create fear in the immigrant community and mistrust between the community and the police, thus “risking the public safety” of Providence, Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Pare said in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which runs the program.

Under Secure Communities, the fingerprints and other information of a person charged with a crime are sent to the FBI which, in turn, looks for matches in a database of the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The aim, according to the government, is to identify and deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.  Read more…

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