THE NORTH PARK BLOCKS were crowded with American flags and protest signs on Tuesday, June 15. It was hardly a Tea Party: Dozens of local immigration reformers were rallying outside the Portland offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), decrying a rapidly expanding program that they say will make immigrants afraid to report crimes.

Under the new “Secure Communities” program, rolled out in Multnomah, Marion, and Clackamas Counties since April and May, anyone who is booked in county jail will have their fingerprints run through a national immigration database.

ICE, a division of Homeland Security, says the program will focus on “criminal aliens” who have committed serious crimes. But among the immigrants caught and deported under the new system have been people arrested for lesser violations, like driving without a license, and some who were never convicted.

Ashlee Albies, chair of the Portland chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, says Secure Communities puts families at risk.

“ICE says that Secure Communities is meant for violent criminals, but they’re using it to deport people for minor offenses,” says Albies. “When victims call in domestic violence cases, sometimes the victim gets picked up as well.”

The immigrant rights group CAUSA, which helped organize the June 15 rally, takes a similar position on the program.

“Because immigrants may fear being separated from their families and deported, they will be less likely to report crimes where they are the victim,” said CAUSA Oregon Executive Director Francisco Lopez in a statement before the rally.

Police officers in Oregon are not allowed to question anyone’s immigration status during any police interaction. But once arrestees make it to booking, they’re in the county’s—and ICE’s—hands. Under the old county jail policy, an ICE employee could interview and potentially flag the suspect for review, but fingerprints weren’t automatically run through an immigration check.

Secure Communities began in the California, Arizona, and Texas counties that line the Mexican border. ICE is now furthering the program in urban areas and counties, prioritized by crime statistics and suspected levels of illegal immigration.

“Our focus is criminal aliens who have committed serious crimes,” says Lorie Dankers, a spokesperson for ICE. After those criminals are sentenced or released, she says, “We don’t want to let them back out on the street where they could be disruptive to public safety.”

Dankers would not speculate on whether people who are never charged with a crime could face deportation through Secure Communities. ICE has not made public the number of immigrants deported through Secure Communities searches so far.

Once an inmate is identified as an undocumented immigrant, a special process kicks in. After the immigrant’s case closes (whether it’s dismissed, dropped, or the inmate is convicted), ICE has 48 hours to pick them up and transport them to an immigrant detention center.

For inmates in Oregon, that means being trucked to a 1,500-bed facility in Tacoma, which is run like a minimum-security prison by a private company, the GEO Group. Last year a securities analyst with Macquarie Research rated GEO stock a wise investment because of the “robust pipeline” of future prisoners headed for its facilities.

Immigrants from Latin America leave Tacoma on unmarked white jets, operated by the US Marshals Service.

For arrested immigrants, bail is essentially useless. According to Sergeant Dave Thompson with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, “If somebody comes in to post bail, we say that before we release the inmate, we’ll contact ICE, and ICE has a set amount of time to come and pick them up.”

In Tacoma, inmates have the opportunity to appeal their case, but most detainees are deported after about 30 days, says Dankers.

11 replies on ““Criminal Aliens””

  1. How to solve the immigration problem.

    1) E Verify
    2) Charge all employers found employing persons illegally with adding and abetting and revoke their license to operate.
    3) Fix the H1B visa system that creates indentured servitude by not allowing immigrants to work for whichever employer they chose.
    4) Fix USCIS. There is no reason to wait 2 years for immigration proceedings. There is no reason why a clear answer of where a case stands can be given.
    5) If you are here illegally, return to your country and apply for proper documents.

    If I could wait over a year and a half to be reunited with my wife after we had been together for 2 years overseas thank to USCIS foot dragging, they can make the hard decision to return to their home country.

  2. It amazes me how the anti-immigrant movement can’t really see the other side. Really, do you think it’s that easy, if it’s even allowed, ‘to apply for proper documentation’?? NO THERE IS NOT! Also, it’s easy to say that they should allow only legal immigrants. Of course it’s easier. They are not starving in their home country trying to ‘better’ themselves. Ignorance is bliss my friend! If you go back to your grade school and relearn the history of this country and how it was built, you’ll have some knowledge who this country is for.

  3. Deport now! It’s too late for apologies. Get rid of these thieving law breakers. They are all thieves by the fact that they are here ILLEGALLY. My wife immigrated here, followed the rules, paid a lot of money, ASSIMILATED and got her green card. Apparently it was all for nothing. Looks like all she really had to do was just cross the border and pretend not to understand English.
    I am expecting a refund form Mr. Hopey-Changey for all of her expenses plus the $7800 for our child’s birth costs. If we said that she was an ILLEGAL Hispanic we wouldn’t have had to pay anything.

  4. Why is driving without a valid driver’s license, in your mind, not a serious offense? To get a license a person must pass an exam that shows he/she has basic knowledge of traffic laws. Low score=no license. Driving a vehicle without the proper level of competence can be deadly. Having a license allows the state to screen out those who are not competent—without subjecting each one to on-the-spot evaluation. Foreign travelers to the US normally can get an international driving Permit which is recognized by UN treaty.

  5. We need to document all the undocumented, then we can issue work visas, deportation orders, etc… We need to solve this mess that the politicians in Washington DC haven’t fixed out of fear of the political backlash. I am sure many workers would travel back and forth from their home countries just to work seasonal jobs but who are now trapped on this side of the border because of political cowardice keeping them from having the documents to work a agriculture job.

  8. Deportations will not solve the crisis with the immigration system, and speeding up the rate at which deportations happen, as “Secure Communities” does, will not help this countries economic problems. The government is spending more money on deporting the people that allow us to have affordable food grown in Oregon and provide services that make our businesses cost effective. They often do pay taxes, such as Social Security, which they never take back out of the system. Oh, and they are the largest growing consumer market. Why are we trying to enforce a system that doesn’t work? Lets fix the system, and enforce the one that works.

  9. When you learn about confirmed incidents of illegal alien activity list them and their bosses at http://illegalalienreport.com. The site is formatted to be very search visible so people looking them up in the future could get a heads up about illegal aliens in their midst.

  10. I just created a system for documenting illegal aliens. When you hear of a confirmed sighting just go to http://illegalalienreport.com and add them to my tracking database. This way people searching for them online in the future will get a heads up that there may be an illegal alien in their midst.

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