Secure Communities

DHS has expanded Secure Communities from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 3,000 today, including all jurisdictions along the southwest border. DHS is on track to expand Secure Communities to all law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide during fiscal year 2013.

Through Aug. 31, 2012, more than 166,000 immigrants convicted of crimes were removed from the United States after identification through Secure Communities. Of the more than 166,000, more than 61,000 immigrants were convicted of aggravated felony (level 1) offenses, including murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children.

How does Secure Communities work?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) receives annual appropriations from Congress sufficient to remove a limited number of the more than 10 million individuals estimated to be in the U.S. who lack lawful status or are removable because of a criminal conviction. Given this reality, ICE must set sensible priorities.

Under the Obama administration, ICE has set clear and common-sense priorities for immigration enforcement focused on identifying and removing those aliens with criminal convictions. In addition to criminal aliens, ICE focuses on recent illegal entrants, repeat violators who game the immigration system, those who fail to appear at immigration hearings, and fugitives who have already been ordered removed by an immigration judge.

These priorities have led to significant results. Between fiscal years 2008 and 2011, ICE removed more convicted criminal aliens from our country than ever before, with the number of convicted criminals that ICE removed from the United States increasing by 89 percent, while the number of non-criminals removed dropped by 29 percent.

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Secure Communities has proven to be a critical tool for carrying out ICE's enforcement priorities. To continue to improve Secure Communities, DHS and ICE are committed to addressing concerns that have been raised about its operation including:

• Limited Removal Resources: Currently, ICE receives an annual appropriation from Congress sufficient to remove a limited number of the more than 10 million individuals estimated to be in the United States unlawfully. As Secure Communities is continuing to grow each year, and is currently on track to be implemented nationwide during FY 2013, refining it will enable ICE to focus its limited resources on the most serious criminals across the country.
• Community Policing: Some law enforcement agencies have expressed concerns about whether Secure Communities could have an impact on witnesses and victims of crimes coming forward to report criminal activities in their communities. Given the importance of community policing, ICE is instituting additional training to ensure that law enforcement officers understand its goals and priorities.
• Civil Rights: As with all enforcement programs, there is a need to ensure that the civil rights of those who interact with law enforcement are protected. As Secure Communities matures nationally, ICE is taking additional steps to ensure that it can execute its mission while continuing to respond to any potential civil rights concerns.

These additional safeguards will further protect Secure Communities from those who may undermine ICE's enforcement priorities or engage in racial or ethnic profiling:

• Advisory Committee & Minor Traffic Offenses: ICE created an advisory task force to advise the Director of ICE on ways to improve Secure Communities, including making recommendations on how to best focus on individuals who pose a true public safety or national security threat. This panel was composed of chiefs of police, sheriffs, state and local prosecutors, ICE agents from the field, immigration advocates, and leading academics. The first report of this advisory group provided recommendations on how ICE can adjust Secure Communities to mitigate potential impacts on community policing practices, including how to implement policies related to the detention and removal of individuals charged with, but not convicted of, minor traffic offenses who have no other criminal history or egregious immigration violations. View the full list of committee members.
• Prosecutorial Discretion: ICE Director Morton has issued a memo providing guidance for ICE law enforcement personnel and attorneys regarding their authority to exercise discretion when appropriate – authority designed to help ICE better focus on meeting the priorities of both the agency and Secure Communities to use limited resources to target criminals and those that put public safety at risk. This memo also directs the exercise of prosecutorial discretion to ensure that victims of and witnesses to crimes are properly protected. The memo clarifies that the exercise of discretion is inappropriate in cases involving threats to public safety, national security and other agency priorities.
• Training for States: ICE and the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) have developed a new training program for state and local law enforcement agencies to provide more information for state and local law enforcement about how Secure Communities works and how it relates to laws governing civil rights. Four video briefings, with supporting materials, have been released already, with more to follow throughout calendar year 2012.
• Protecting Victims & Witnesses of Crimes: At the direction of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, ICE, in consultation with CRCL, has developed a policy specifically to protect victims of domestic violence and other crimes and to ensure these crimes continue to be reported and prosecuted. This policy directs ICE officers to exercise appropriate discretion to ensure victims and witnesses to crimes are not penalized by removal. ICE is also working to develop additional tools that will help identify people who may be a victim, witness, or member of a vulnerable class so officers can exercise appropriate discretion.
• Detainer Policy: ICE has revised the detainer form ICE sends to local jurisdictions to emphasize the longstanding guidance that state and local authorities are not to detain an individual for more than 48 hours. The form also requests local law enforcement to provide arrestees with a copy, which has a number to call if they believe their civil rights have been violated.
• Data Collection:
  • ICE and CRCL have created a complaint system whereby individuals or organizations who believe civil rights violations connected to Secure Communities have occurred can file a complaint. For example, CRCL will investigate complaints of ethnic discrimination by policing jurisdictions for which Secure Communities has been activated, and DHS will take steps to ensure that bias or other abuses do not affect immigration enforcement.
  • ICE and CRCL have created an ongoing quarterly statistical review to examine data for each jurisdiction where Secure Communities is activated to identify effectiveness and any indications of potentially improper use of Secure Communities. Statistical outliers in local jurisdictions will be subject to an in-depth analysis and DHS and ICE will take appropriate steps to resolve any issues

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Secure Communities: From Arrest to Release or Removal

When state and local law enforcement arrest or book someone into custody for a violation of a criminal offense, they generally fingerprint the person. After fingerprints are taken at the jail, the state and local authorities electronically submit the fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This data is then stored in the FBI's criminal databases. After running the fingerprints against those databases, the FBI sends the state and local authorities a record of the person's criminal history.

With Secure Communities, once the FBI checks the fingerprints, the FBI automatically sends them to DHS, so that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can determine if that person is also subject to removal (deportation). This change, whereby the fingerprints are sent to DHS in addition to the FBI, fulfills a 2002 Congressional mandate for the FBI to share information with ICE, and is consistent with a 2008 federal law that instructs ICE to identify criminal aliens for removal. Secure Communities does not require any changes in the procedures of local law enforcement agencies or jails.

If the person has been previously encountered and fingerprinted by an immigration official and there is a digitized record, then the immigration database will register a “match.” ICE then reviews other databases to determine whether the person is here illegally or is otherwise removable.

In cases where the person appears from these checks to be removable, ICE generally issues a detainer on the person, requesting that the state or local jail facility hold the individual up to an extra 48 hours (excluding weekends) to allow for an interview of the person. Following the interview, ICE decides whether to seek the person's removal.

In making these decisions, ICE considers a number of factors, including the person's criminal history, immigration history (such as whether the person was previously deported or has an outstanding removal order from an immigration judge), family ties, duration of stay in the U.S., significant medical issues, and other circumstances. In many instances involving lower-level criminals or people who are not convicts, re-entrants, or fugitives, ICE offers the person the option of voluntary return. A voluntary return allows the person to enter the U.S. lawfully in the future.

When someone goes into immigration proceedings, the court process is run independent of the state criminal justice system. As a result, illegal immigrants can be removed before the criminal case is complete. There are a variety of reasons that the local arrest may not result in a criminal conviction. However, all of those removed are guilty of an immigration violation, and removed pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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Enforcing America's immigration laws is a federal responsibility. Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, this responsibility falls to DHS, specifically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since 2008, Congress has expanded ICE's immigration enforcement obligations – directing ICE to create a strategy to identify criminal aliens and prioritize them for removal.

In light of this direction and the fact that ICE receives limited resources, ICE must prioritize which of the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States and other removable aliens to pursue. In a memo issued by ICE Director John Morton in June 2010, ICE outlined the way it prioritizes removals. Specifically, ICE prioritizes the removal of those who pose a danger to national security or public safety, repeat violators who game the immigration system, those who fail to appear at immigration hearings, and fugitives who have already been ordered removed by an immigration judge. Because the administration is committed to using immigration enforcement resources in the way most beneficial to public safety, the primary focus is on convicted criminals, with a priority on aggravated felons.

As a result, record numbers of criminal aliens have been removed, with Secure Communities playing a key role in ICE's ability to fulfill this public safety priority. Between October 2008 and October 2011, the number of convicted criminals that ICE removed from the United States increased 89 percent, while the number of aliens removed without criminal convictions dropped by 29 percent. These trends are due in significant part to the implementation and expansion of Secure Communities. While Secure Communities is only responsible for a limited percentage of ICE's total removals and returns, it has helped ICE identify a more significant percentage of the convicted criminals that ICE removes or returns.

Over time, the percentage of serious offenders removed through Secure Communities will continue to increase, as those convicted of misdemeanors will decrease. This reflects the fact that people who commit more serious crimes serve longer sentences and consequently take longer to come into ICE custody. Since Secure Communities was first activated in October 2008, the percentage of misdemeanant removals has decreased from 40 percent of all removals in fiscal year 2009 to 29 percent of all removals following identification through Secure Communities in fiscal year 2011.

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Learn more about ICE's removal statistics and the methodology used for calculating those statistics.

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Secure Communities reduces opportunities for racial or ethnic profiling because all people booked into jails are fingerprinted. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and DHS' Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) are currently implementing additional safeguards to further protect Secure Communities from those who may seek to use it improperly.

Several initiatives to achieve these goals are underway:

• In order to identify jurisdictions that may be making improper arrests that could result in identification of aliens through Secure Communities, ICE and CRCL have retained a leading statistician who is examining data for each jurisdiction where Secure Communities is activated, comparing data for aliens identified by Secure Communities to relevant arrest-rate data, and identifying any indications of racial profiling. Statistical outliers will be subject to an in-depth analysis. This analysis will take place four times per year to ensure consistent monitoring, and the assessments will be shared quarterly with the Department of Justice. Statistical outliers in local jurisdictions will be subject to an in-depth analysis and DHS and ICE will take appropriate steps to resolve any issues. View the Overview of Quarterly Statistical Monitoring (PDF | 260 KB).
• To prevent and address possible abuses of Secure Communities, ICE and CRCL are working together to develop a new training program for state and local law enforcement agencies in jurisdictions where Secure Communities is activated. These training materials are designed to reduce confusion regarding Secure Communities and help ensure that it is not misused. Four video briefings, with supporting materials, have already been released, with more to follow throughout calendar year 2012.
• ICE has revised the detainer form ICE submits to local jurisdictions to emphasize the longstanding guidance that state and local authorities are not to detain an individual for more than 48 hours. The form also requires local law enforcement to provide arrestees with a copy, which has a number to call if they believe their civil rights have been violated.
• DHS and ICE take allegations of racial profiling and other complaints relating to civil rights and civil liberties violations very seriously. Formal allegations are referred to CRCL, which is tasked with guarding against violations in DHS programs (Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Complaint Form in English (PDF | 7 pages - 214 KB) and Spanish (PDF | 7 pages - 219 KB) and in seven other languages). CRCL notifies the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction to investigate violations of civil rights by state and local officers of all investigations undertaken. ICE fully supports all Department of Justice or CRCL investigations, including by taking action to ensure witnesses and complainants are able to remain in the United States. View the Secure Communities Complaints Protocol (PDF | 273 KB | 5 pages).

To contact the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, please email crcl@dhs.gov, or call 1-866-644-8360 (toll free) or 1-866-644-8361 (toll free TTY).

To report allegations of racial profiling, due process violations, or other possible violations of civil rights or civil liberties related to Secure Communities, all complaints should be filed with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties complaint intake website.

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Concerns about the civil rights and civil liberties of individuals in communities where there is significant immigration enforcement activity are not unique to Secure Communities. The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are creating a series of training/awareness briefings designed primarily for use by front line state and local law enforcement agency personnel during daily muster/roll call briefings. The videos and other tools will address eight categories of civil rights and civil liberties issues and topics of importance.

Project Goals:

• To provide actionable information to state and local law enforcement about the civil rights and civil liberties issues that may arise when ICE begins using a federal information sharing capability through Secure Communities in their jurisdictions.
• To increase the transparency of the Department's active commitment to protecting the civil rights and civil liberties of all persons affected by DHS activities and programs.

The training/briefing materials are offered as a series of short videos, discussion guides with references to web-based resources for additional information (when available), and job aids.

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Gregory Archambeault
Assistant Director for Secure Communities and Enforcement

Gregory J. Archambeault is the assistant director for the Secure Communities and Enforcement Division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for several major ICE programs and initiatives, including the Criminal Alien Program, the National Fugitive Operations Program, the 287(g) Program and the deployment of Secure Communities interoperability.

Mr. Archambeault has more than 25 years of law enforcement experience. In 1987, he began his federal law enforcement career in San Diego, with the former U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS), as part of the cooperative education program. In 1988, he was hired as a special agent where he conducted investigations of criminal aliens and street gangs, alien smugglers, counterfeit document manufacturers and employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mr. Archambeault was posted to the INS attaché offices in Greece and India, where he served as a regional liaison to foreign government officials and law enforcement, as well as U.S. government agencies.

Prior to joining the ICE Office of Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO), Mr. Archambeault served with the ICE Office of Investigations as a supervisory special agent and resident agent in charge. He was responsible for the management and oversight of investigations related to violations of immigration and customs laws, including alien smuggling, worksite enforcement, criminal alien fugitives, child exploitation and arms and strategic technologies. He also served as the liaison to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

In 2008, Mr. Archambeault joined ERO as the unit chief for the National Fugitive Operations Program, providing leadership and programmatic oversight to 104 teams nationwide. He was subsequently appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the deputy assistant director for the Criminal Alien Division, where he was responsible for strategic planning, policy development, budgetary oversight and the deployment of resources to effectively investigate, identify, arrest and remove criminal aliens found at-large in the United States and incarcerated in federal, state and local jails and prisons.

Mr. Archambeault received a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice administration from San Diego State University. He is a member of the Senior Executive Service.

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To contact the Secure Communities office, please call (202) 732-3900. For media inquiries about Secure Communities, contact ICE's Office of Public Affairs at (202) 732-4242.

To report allegations of racial profiling, due process violations, or other possible violations of civil rights or civil liberties related to Secure Communities, all complaints should be filed with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties complaint intake website.

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