DHS Task Force Releases Report on "Secure Communities," Fails to Recommend Suspension of Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Keith Rushing, Communications Manager
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September 16, 2011 -- Washington, D.C. -- Today the Homeland Security Advisory Council Task Force on Secure Communities released its findings and recommendations.  The Task Force was created by the Department of Homeland Security in response to widespread criticism of the Secure Communities program, but it began to crumble in the wake of the public release of its findings.  Five Task Force members resigned from the group yesterday as a result of disagreements over conclusions set forth in the report.  The report notes that roughly half of Task Force members believe that the program should be suspended or terminated.  The Task Force report also cites concerns raised by Secure Communities that have been echoed by immigrant communities and law enforcement agencies, such as the negative impact on community policing; the lack of transparency from DHS about the program; and few, in any, meaningful safeguards to protect civil rights and civil liberties.  A parallel report by the National Community Advisory Commission cites similar concerns and calls for the suspension of the program.  Rights Working Group along with other national and community-based organizations came together to form the National Community Advisory Commission.

The Commission, organized by the National Day Labor Organizing Network, closely examined Secure Communities' impact on racial profiling and community policing.  In addition to recommending that Secure Communities be ended, the authors of the report recommend: that the DHS Office of the Inspector General's current audit of Secure Communities be completed, that the Department of Justice begin its own investigation into the mysterious role of the FBI in Secure Communities, and that states not be compelled to share biometric data with ICE.
   
The following statement can be attributed to the National Community Advisory Commission:

"This report confirms what immigrant communities have long known. The program called Secure Communities results in the opposite. Entangling local police in immigration enforcement is not just bad policy as the experts testify. Conscripting local police into immigration enforcement has provoked a massive civil rights crisis our country now faces. The only suitable approach is to end Secure Communities."

"This Administration can no longer continue to stand by Secure Communities," said Margaret Huang, executive director of the Rights Working Group, a member of the Commission. "By continuing to support this program they are sanctioning racial profiling, eroding the trust local law enforcement agencies have built with the communities they serve, and showing the international community that our immigration system does not respect the basic human rights of all persons in our country."

The National Community Advisory Commission report is available here.

The Commission includes:  American Friends Service Committee, Project Voice New England, Asian Law Caucus, CASA de Maryland, CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Detention Watch Network, Grassroots Leadership, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer's Guild, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Rights Working Group, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, and We-Count!