At a press conference intended to tout ICE and Homeland Security’s new numbers showing a record number of deportations, particularly those of criminal aliens, Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed allegations first reported by the Washington Post that local jurisdictions cannot actually “opt-out” of the Secure Communities program. ICE previously issued a letter suggesting opt-out was possible, and Napolitano herself implied the same in a letter to Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Several jurisdictions, including Washington DC, and counties in Virginia and California, recently voted to opt-out of the program, which compels local law enforcement to forward the biometric identifying information of anyone they arrest to ICE.
“What my letter said was that we would work with them on the implementation in terms of timing and the like,”Napolitano said, according to Renée Feltz and Stokely Baksh at Deportation Nation. “But we do not view this as an opt-in, opt-out program.”
Last week Sunita Patel, a Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, told me following the Washington Post report that she and CCR “wanted to trust” Napolitano’s “word that this is the voluntary program.” I guess there’s a different word now.
