More Immigration Detentions on the Way

As if ICE were not already rounding up too many people, news reports this week suggest that those numbers will, at the very least, not decrease under the Obama Administration.  Washington Post writer Spencer S. Hsu reported yesterday that

“The Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by President George W. Bush aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. In four years, the measure could result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation, current and former U.S. officials said.”

Also yesterday the Houston Chronicle reported that Texas’s prison system is the first in the country to start running fingerprint checks of every incarcerated person.

This is worrisome news about a program, called Secure Communities by DHS, that the criticized the program.  According to Barry, “Adopting the language of the criminal justice system, Secure Communities describes two or more illegal entries as ‘recidivism.’ One of the program’s ‘strategic goals’ is to ‘maximize cost effectiveness and long-term success through deterrence and reduced recidivism.’”