Thursday, September 30, 2010

Texas Becomes Fourth State To Use ICE Fingerprinting Biometric Information Sharing In All County Jails

Usage of the Secure Communities program in identifying illegal aliens arrested by county sheriff's or police for suspected crimes in the U.S. spreading to 32 states.

September 30, 2010

Dallas, Texas (HNNUSA) - On Wednesday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced through a press release that its "Secure Communities" program was activated in every county jail in Texas as of Tuesday. Texas joins Delaware, Florida and Virginia that are using the program in all their counties. Wisconsin has not joined the new ICE fingerprinting program as of yet and Illinois has 15 counties that are using the biometric program as of September 28.
ICE reported, the activation of the biometric federal information-sharing capability enables ICE to identify any alien booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime. This capability is part of ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States.
Formerly, during the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were checked for criminal history information only against the biometric database maintained by the FBI. With the implementation of Secure Communities, this fingerprint information is now automatically and simultaneously checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
If any fingerprints match those of someone in the DHS biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. This notification includes aliens who are in lawful status and those who are present without lawful authority. ICE 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 offenses first - such as those with convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping. rape and kidnapping.
With the expansion of the biometric information-sharing capability throughout Texas, ICE is now using it in 659 jurisdictions in 32 states. By 2013, ICE plans to be able to respond to all fingerprint matches generated nationwide through IDENT/IAFIS interoperability, according to ICE.

To check if your jurisdiction is activated to share fingerprinting information with ICE (download PDF, includes 50 U.S. states) at link: http://bit.ly/c6CK91

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