S-Comm is a Hazard for Crime Victims

Amy Lieberman writes for WeNews:

Safe Horizons, the largest assistance agency for victims of domestic violence in New York City, has long advised clients to contact the police, even if they are undocumented immigrants.

That advice no longer holds true, says Lynn Neugebaeur, supervising attorney at Safe Horizons’ Immigrant Law Project. A two-year-old federal immigration program spreading across the states is changing the rules.

“We want people to report crimes, but on the other hand, we don’t want them to be innocently picked up and deported for doing what an ordinary citizen would do,” Neugebaeur said.

The program, Secure Communities, grants state and local police access to Department of Homeland Security’s immigration databases to crosscheck fingerprints when they make an arrest. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a sub-agency, is then alerted to the arrest if the person is found to be undocumented. Read more…

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