Nutter disagrees with coalition view of federal program

A coalition of immigrant advocates and elected officials yesterday called on Mayor Nutter to halt the city's participation in "Secure Communities," a federal program that asks local police to check the immigration status of arrestees and hold them for Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they are undocumented.

Initiated in March 2008, Secure Communities is being phased in county by county, with full coverage nationwide expected by 2013. It is in effect in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and, since July 21, in Philadelphia.

Under Secure Communities, the fingerprints of a person charged with a crime are submitted to the FBI for a criminal-background check and to a database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration. If it turns out the person is not in the United States legally, he or she is held for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and possible deportation.

Immigration officials say the goal is to "better identify criminal aliens" and "prioritize enforcement actions on those posing the greatest threat to public safety."

But opponents say the program engenders distrust between local police and immigrant communities because undocumented immigrants will be afraid to report crimes. It opens the door to arrests based on racial profiling, and will drive up the city's prison costs, the critics say.

"We are urging . . . the mayor not to cooperate because it makes people afraid of police," said Councilman James F. Kenney, who added his signature to a letter to Nutter from more than 30 pro-immigrant groups. "As far as ignoring the federal government, on some things they should be ignored because on some things they are wrong."

Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez warned that a surge in immigrant detentions could result in prison overcrowding. "Immigration [enforcement] is a federal issue that should stay a federal issue," she said.

Mark Medvesky, a spokesman for ICE in Philadelphia, said the law permits Philadelphia to "opt out" of the program, "but I can't imagine why they would want to. It's not a mandate. It's considered a tool for law enforcement agencies to use."

He said prison overcrowding is not critical because such detentions expire after 48 hours. No one's fingerprints are put into the system until after they are booked for a crime, he said.

Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said, "Our general sense is that because crime victims and witnesses are not fingerprinted, Secure Communities does not have a chilling effect on anyone's desire to come forward and work with police."

He said Nutter saw no reason to halt the program.