ACLU Representative Nancy Walker and Executive Director Patricia Montes of Centro Presente. - Photo by Andrew Firestone

Finger print database upsets advocates

By Andrew Firestone

A Somerville-based immigrant group and lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union are comparing a new plan by Boston police to monitor illegal immigrants to futuristic techniques from the George Orwell novel “1984.”

Centro Presente and others discussed the methods and ethics of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) at a community meeting Oct. 5, calling into question the legality of the Boston Police Department’s compliance with the new $1.4 billion Secured Communities initiative by ICE.

The Secured Communities initiative, begun in 2008, uses advanced biometric technology to match finger prints from any suspected illegal immigrant taken into custody by local law enforcement to databases of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. While technically a volunteer program by local law enforcement, it is believed this is only the beginning of a national program, said Nancy Walker, Director of Education for the ACLU.

“What is being created behind the scenes is a new form of everything: a new form of policing, a new form of surveillance in which everyone participates,” said Walker.

Immigrant advocates have said they believe the new initiative does nothing but increasing fear among immigrants, leading to discouragement in communicating with police. Labor activist William Leonard said it relegates immigrants, regardless of status, into the role of second-class citizens. “That weakens the whole working class to fight back for the jobs that we need,” he said.

While ICE has said the program is aimed only at deporting dangerous criminals, Walker noted that, while 180 of the 520 immigrants arrested under the program have been convicted of felony offenses, 23 had misdemeanors and 246, almost half, were not guilty of any crime. Beyond that, five percent of those arrested were actually American citizens, he said.

“This is not about preventing terrorism,” said Gabriel Comacho, of Centro Presente. “This is about criminalizing undocumented immigrants and racial profiling.”

State Representative Denise Provost (D-Somerville), said that she was worried more about the scope of the Federal Government’s plan, and also the vague wording involved in the program itself. “The notion of a surveillance state troubles me,” she said.

According the ICE, they work through a State Identification Bureau to properly label arrested immigrants in local law enforcement systems. Because Massachusetts does not have such a bureau, it is actually the responsibility of the Commissioner of the Boston Police, Ed Davis.

While acting Somerville Police Chief Michael Cabral was on record as saying he would not purposefully go after immigrants, Montes urged incoming Police Chief Thomas Pasquarello to opt out of the program.

“We are going to have secure communities when we have better public policies that allow all people in this society, not only immigrants, live with dignity,” Montes said.