Washington State First to Refuse Secure Communities

by Erin Pangilinan · 2010-12-17 06:00:00 UTC
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Washington State has become the first state to successfully refuse to sign an agreement to implement the Secure Communities program, which would require local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of individuals charged with any crime against the federal immigration database.

The Washington State Patrol clearly vocalized their opposition to the program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We are a state law-enforcement agency, and we don’t want to go down the road of being an immigration agency," Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins told the Seattle Times. Calkins also noted that Governor Chris Gregoire is believed to be of the "same mind on this," although he has yet to take an official stand. The Secure Communities program can harm local law enforcement's ability to do their primary job by breeding distrust in the community, while rarely identifying serious criminals for deportation.

Unfortunately, coalitions in Washington, D.C., Arlington, V.A., and Santa Clara and San Francisco, C.A., have not been as successful in refusing to participate in Secure Communities. Though some local law enforcement officers have stood up against Secure Communities, like San Francisco's Sheriff Hennessey, these localities were not able to opt out once their state agree. While the Department of Homeland Security says that they intend to have program implemented in every jail nationally by 2013, states like Washington help set a precedent and give hope to other localities fighting implementation of the program.

At the same time, Washington is only in the beginning stages of the battle. While Governor Chris Gregoire has yet to make a final determination on the Secure Communities program, anti-immigrant advocates are pushing for localities to sign-up for the program. Washingtonians must urge Governor Gregoire to opt out of the Secure Communities program and to decline to sign an agreement with ICE.

Photo credit: Immigration Impact

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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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