VICTORY! "Secure Communities" Forced to Actually Keep Communities Safe In Montgomery County, MD

Over the past month, a petition started by CASA de Maryland sent a loud and clear message (actually, hundreds of them!) to the Montgomery County, Maryland Council: keep our communities secure by rethinking the "Secure Communities Program."  Thanks in part to the petition's  supporters, the County Council unanimously voted to ensure that the common mistakes, injustices and illegalities of the Secure Communities program are not replicated in Montgomery County.

Ostensibly designed to deport dangerous criminals, the Secure Communities Program (or S-Comm) is a rapidly-spreading partnership between local law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that requires local police to send residents' fingerprints through a federal database for cross-referencing of immigration status. While it may sound innocuous, the program ends up targeting a majority of hard-working immigrant residents for deportation, residents who are neither dangerous nor criminal.

Too often, S-Comm has been used as a thin veil for racial profiling and indiscriminate deportation, rather than as a mechanism to actually keep residents secure.  In partner counties, S-Comm has created a culture of fear and mistrust of the police force, as residents fear to report crimes at the steep price of being deported or detained. As the New York Times recently editorialized, S-Comm even catches victims of domestic violence in its gaping net; it deserves to be stopped and investigated, not expanded nation-wide.

In this unanimous resolution, the Montgomery County Council has mandated that local law enforcement will report to ICE only the names of undocumented immigrants who are also dangerous convicts.  With this move, Montgomery County is vowing to fix the broken S-Comm system within its county lines.

As County Council Member Nancy Navarro stated, S-Comm "opens the door to racial profiling. It opens the door for victims of a crime to be afraid of coming forward. This is not the Montgomery County we are proud of."

The resolution states that the Montgomery County Council is “concerned that the Secure Communities program, as currently administered, will create division in our community, promote a culture of fear, and dismantle the trust that our police officers have worked to establish in many immigrant communities throughout the County.”

Our friends at CASA de Maryland applauded the resolution's passage, stating, "The resolution, albeit modest, also encourages local public safety officials to help the Federal Government do what it has been incapable of doing thus far:  Stop deporting innocent people; stop deporting victims of domestic violence who call for help; and stop encouraging racist police officers to conduct Arizona-style immigration enforcement on our streets."

Congratulations, Montgomery County, and to everyone who took action. It takes a small and dedicated community, apparently, to tell ICE how to actually do its job. By cleaning up its S-Comm implementation, Montgomery County is sending the message that the way the so-called "Secure Communities" program functions in fact establishes a culture of distinct insecurity.

In fact, a statement from CASA de Maryland concludes, "We will remember our champions and honor their commitment. We will also continue to hold all of our leaders accountable for their actions towards us and the 279,000 Latino residents of the County. Finally, we remain deeply angered that our President and his U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency continue to force local jurisdictions into harmful and discredited cooperation programs. The fear they sow and the orphans they create will be a shameful part of their legacy."

Judging by what's brewing in Illinois and New York, the battle over S-Comm is only just beginning.

Photo Credit: Andrew Bossi