Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin was informed today by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that DHS has signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for Rhode Island to engage in the Secure Communities program.
“I am pleased by the quick response by DHS to sign the MOA, and I look forward to working with ICE and our local law enforcement agencies to implement Secure Communities,” said Attorney General Kilmartin. “The mission of the Office of Attorney General and all law enforcement agencies is to protect Rhode Island citizens and our communities. Secure Communities, which identifies criminal aliens who have been previously convicted, gives us one more tool to fulfill that mission.”
The Secure Communities program improves and modernizes the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States, according to ICE. When an individual is currently arrested for committing a crime, fingerprints of the arrested individual are run through the state database, known as RILETS, and the FBI database, known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). With Secure Communities, fingerprints submitted by law enforcement agencies to the FBI through the state are automatically sent from the FBI, which checks criminal history records, to DHS to check against immigration and law enforcement records—IDENT. If a fingerprint match is recorded, ICE will determine if immigration enforcement action is required, considering the immigration status of the alien, the severity of the crime and the alien's criminal history.
Through Secure Communities, because fingerprints are checked at the time of booking, after a lawful arrest, ICE can identify criminal aliens early in the process and initiate immigration enforcement action.
Since ICE began using this enhanced information sharing capability in October 2008, immigration officers have removed from the United States more than 58,000 aliens convicted of a crime. ICE does not regard aliens charged with, but not yet convicted of crimes, as "criminal aliens." Instead, a "criminal alien" is an alien convicted of a crime.
With the signed MOA in place, ICE and its federal, state, tribal and local partners will work together to create a deployment plan that best achieves the mission, considering the pressing needs and the availability of resources at all levels. Pending the completion of outreach briefings to the local law enforcement agencies by ICE, an activation date will be set.
The Department of Homeland Security intends to employ Secure Communities in all jurisdictions across the nation by 2013. Jurisdictions cannot opt out of Secure Communities as it is fundamentally an information sharing program between federal partners. Should a jurisdiction have questions regarding the program or not wish to activate on its scheduled date in the Secure Communities deployment plan, ICE will work with them to address any concerns and determine appropriate next steps. With the Secure Communities program, there is no change to state and local law enforcement’s current daily operations. Their role is to continue enforcing their state or local law the way they always have. Local law enforcement does not take a federal immigration enforcement role with Secure Communities. In fact, Secure Communities does not authorize, or permit, state or local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law – ICE retains authority. There is no cost to the state or local police departments to employ Secure Communities.