GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Secure Communities Program Uses Biometrics to Target Illegal Immigrants

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Emergency Management

01March2011 8:53pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:  As of last week, any person arrested and fingerprinted in California will now undergo an automatic immigration check.

California became the ninth state in which each county has activated Secure Communities, a fingerprint data-sharing program between local law enforcement offices and federal immigration enforcement agencies. Other states with complete activation include Texas, West Virginia, Florida, Arizona, Delaware, Virginia, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

Secure Communities is a program between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Justice that automatically sends name and fingerprint information submitted through a federal file-sharing system, where it’s checked against both the FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Automated Biometric Identification System.

If fingerprints match DHS records, ICE determines if immigration enforcement action is required, considering the immigration status of the alien, the severity of the crime and the person's criminal history. Priority is placed on aliens convicted of serious crimes, such as major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.

ICE estimates that 1 million individuals arrested by law enforcement each year are not U.S. citizens. Across the country, 1,033 jurisdictions in 38 states have activated the ICE system, which has resulted in the arrest of more than 59,000 convicted criminal illegal immigrants. By 2013, ICE plans to be fully rolled out nationwide.

“What we’re seeing here is ICE receiving leads and taking the appropriate enforcement action in almost real time as that information is coming in,” said Marc Rapp, acting assistant director for Secure Communities. “There is no instance where some individuals are having their identities queried and others are not. It happens across the board, thereby eliminating the potential for racial profiling.” (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Ariz. may require hospitals to check citizenship

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: The Washington Times

14February2011 8:33amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers want to widen Arizona’s illegal immigration crackdown with a proposal to require hospitals to check on whether patients are in the country legally, causing outrage among medical professionals who fear becoming de facto immigration agents under the law.

The medical industry ripped the bill Monday as it was scheduled for a hearing by the state SenateJudiciary Committee. Doctors envisioned scenarios in which immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis would stay home from the clinic or hospital and put themselves and the public at a grave health risk.

“This is making us into a police state that will try to catch people when they are sick,” said Dr. George Pauk, a retired physician with an organization called Physicians for a National Health Program. “Do we want to stop sick people from coming in for health care?”

Arizona’s is the first legislature to take up such a measure amid a national push in conservative states to crack down on illegal immigration, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Arizona lawmakers ignited the debate a year ago when they passed a bill that required local police, while enforcing other laws, to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. A judge later put that provision on hold. (read full report)

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: E-Verify Adoption Gaining Steam

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: HS Today

14February2011 12:18pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:  The E-Verify program has gained steady adoption momentum among the nation’s employers, US Citizenship and Immigration Services Associate Director Theresa C. Bertucci told the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement last Thursday in a hearing titled "E-Verify: Preserving Jobs for American Workers".
 
 
“As of today, more than 246,000 employers are enrolled, representing more than 850,000 locations,” Bertucci declared.  “More than 1,300 new employers enroll each week and the number of employers enrolled in E-Verify has more than doubled each fiscal year since 2007.” The volume of queries per fiscal year has also increased dramatically, from 3.27 million in FY 2007 to 16.4 million in FY 2010, Bertucci added.
 
 In FY 2011 to date, employers have run more than 5.3 million queries.

Despite this significant growth, Bertucci cautioned that it “is important to put these numbers into context. There are approximately 7.7 million employers operating throughout our country, and the percentage of these employers that use E-Verify is just 11 percent.” (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.