Lawmakers in Albany sent Governor Cuomo a letter on Monday imploring him to cease participation in a controversial immigration enforcement program, the Times reports. Run by the Department of Homeland Security, the Orwellian-sounding Secure Communities was implemented under President Bush in 2008, and checks the "fingerprints of everyone arrested and booked…against Department of Homeland Security immigration records," so illegal immigrants convicted of a crime are swiftly deported.
But an analysis of the data determined that "about one in four people deported under Secure Communities had not been convicted of a crime," and "in some jurisdictions, more than half of deportees were not convicted criminals." Following in the footsteps of 19 New York City councilmembers who sent a similar letter last month, the 38 state legislators told Cuomo that "Given New York's immigrant heritage and our leadership role in the nation, we firmly believe that our state, too, must immediately end this destructive program." New York would be the second state to discontinue the practice, as Illinois announced that it would stop last week.
Opting out of Secure Communities would be a blow to New York law enforcement because the state would "lose access to the criminal databases of other states and the federal government," but it is surely a more dignified alternative to sending all illegal immigrants to Detroit.
