San Benito County this week joined five other Northern
California counties in implementing information-sharing technology
that helps federal immigration officials use biometrics to identify
legal and illegal aliens booked into local law enforcement custody
for a crime.
San Benito County this week joined five other Northern California counties in implementing information-sharing technology that helps federal immigration officials use biometrics to identify legal and illegal aliens booked into local law enforcement custody for a crime.
The program is part of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal from the country of aliens convicted of a crime.
Previously, biometrics – fingerprints – taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into custody were checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice’s fingerprint identification system. Now, biometrics submitted through the state to the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be automatically checked against FBI criminal history records and Department of Homeland Security immigration records.
If fingerprints match those of someone in the homeland security system, the new automated process notifies ICE, which then evaluates each case to determine the individual’s immigration status and takes “appropriate enforcement action.”
Once identified through fingerprint matching, ICE will respond with a priority placed on aliens convicted of the most serious crimes first – such as those with convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.
“The Secure Communities strategy provides ICE with an effective tool to identify criminal aliens in local custody,” said Secure Communities Assistant Director David Venturella in a statement. “Enhancing public safety is at the core of ICE’s mission. Our goal is to use biometric information sharing to remove criminal aliens, preventing them from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our law enforcement partners.”
With the expansion of the biometric information sharing capability to the six additional counties statewide (the others are Amador, Calaveras, Glenn, Inyo and Modoc), ICE is using this capability in 52 California jurisdictions. Across the country, the agency is using this capability in more than 1,000 jurisdictions in 38 states. By 2013, ICE plans to be able to respond nationwide to all fingerprint matches generated through the system.
Since ICE began using this enhanced information sharing capability in October 2008, immigration officers have removed from the United States more than 58,300 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.
