Secure Communities to Be Implemented in Wisconsin

by Erin Pangilinan · 2011-01-26 06:00:00 UTC
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Upon having its State Department of Justice endorse an agreement with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) last October, Wisconsin joined 36 other states in officially signing onto the Secure Communities program earlier this month.

This federal program is harmful to community policing and continually misunderstood by local law enforcement. Although local police like Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke admit that immigration is a federal issue to enforce and not a local one, Clarke and Brown County Sheriff John Gossage nonetheless continue to applaud the program for its ability to "share information."

Fortunately, unlike in Colorado, the Wisconsin program takes into consideration the severity of the crimes committed by individuals, rather than automatically reporting even the most minor offenses. But local police seem to be applying the program's guidelines differently in 72 counties, making the law inconsistent across the state.

While the Dane County Immigration Task Force recommended that county jails do not notify Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) about any person except those with serious crimes, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney resisted this policy recommendation. Mahoney's resistance seems against a state statute specifying that counties only fingerprint arrested individuals for the Secure Communities database charged with serious crimes (such as felonies and a few misdemeanors that include sex crimes, weapons offenses, gambling and burglaries).

ICE has publicly stated that about 37% of individuals taken by the federal program lack a criminal record, making the decision to distinguish between charges for serious crimes and unproven allegations of minor offenses vital. This statistic spurred even more criticism from immigrant rights advocates, like Milwaukee-based Voces de la Frontera, who already opposed the program for its due process violations of those without a crime.

Local police are not acting competently with regard to the federal and state immigration laws. Tell Wisconsin Police to only punish individuals with serious crimes under Secure Communities.

Photo credit: HispanicallySpeakingNews

Erin Pangilinan graduated UC Berkeley as an Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies double major, and writes news and poetry for Philippine News and other venues.

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