The order comes 18 months after the request of several groups that oppose Securities Communities, claiming it has gone beyond its public mandate of arresting and deporting immigrants who have committed dangerous crimes. The
National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the
Center for Constitutional Rights and the
Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University sued ICE and four other federal agencies, including the FBI, to gain the release of documents that explain the program’s purpose.
While Secure Communities has been billed as an anti-crime effort, the program has in reality arrested not only illegal-immigrant felons, but also American citizens and immigrants with only minor offenses.
When the Obama administration launched Secure Communities, it said that states would have the ability to opt out. However in August, federal official announced that law enforcement in all states would have to participate in sharing information with Secure Communities.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered the Obama administration to release the “October 2 Memorandum,” The Obama administration withheld 18 versions of the memorandum “primarily on the basis of the deliberative process privilege and the attorney-client privilege.” Scheindlin wrote that to “adopt a legal position while shielding from public view the analysis that yielded that position is offensive to [the Freedom of Information Act].”
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Quarter of Those Deported Through Violent Illegals Program Have No Criminal Record (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)