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According to a recent report by Spencer Hsu in the Washington Post, the Obama administration is expanding a program aimed at checking the immigration status of almost every person booked into local jails. Officials say that in four years, the measure could result in ten times as many deportations of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. By matching inmates’ fingerprints to federal immigration databases, authorities hope to identify deportable illegal immigrants before they’re released. Inmates in federal and state prisons are already screened, but county lock ups frequently don’t have the time and staff to do the same checks.
The effort is part of the Obama administration’s vow to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes, as opposed to those who otherwise abide by the law. “We mean this, we’re serious about it, and we believe we need to put in an all-out effort to get this done,” said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for homeland security. He has been a vocal proponent of deporting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes after their sentences are served.
The program began as a pilot effort operating in 48 counties across the country, including Fairfax County, Virginia. If things go according to plan, the program will be in place in nearly all local jails in the U.S. by the end of 2012. The effort is not connected to the program 287(G), in which local law enforcement officers have been deputized to question suspects about whether they are in the country legally.
The new program will be automated. Fingerprints being run through the FBI’s criminal history database also will be matched against immigration databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. However, the checks would not catch people who have never been fingerprinted by U.S. authorities.
Based on the pilot program, the agency estimates that if fingerprints from all 14 million bookings in local jails each year were screened, about 1.4 million “criminal aliens” would be found, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. That would be about 10 times the 117,000 criminal illegal immigrants ICE deported in 2008. There are more than 3,100 local jails nationwide, compared with about 1,200 federal and state prisons.
But some supporters of the program wonder whether it can be implemented on schedule and where the money to deport convicted-criminal illegal aliens will come from. A surge in deportation cases, noted Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary of homeland security for policy, would require more prosecutors, immigration judges, and detention beds at a time when funding for all of the above are being radically reduced. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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