More than 70 people rallied outside Governor David Paterson’s Manhattan office carrying posters urging him to change his mind about a program that could lead to the deportation of thousands of New Yorkers.
The hour-long rally on Thursday, December 9 was organized since the summer by New York State Working Group Against Deportation. The same day of the rally, a federal judge listened to arguments against New York State participating in the Secure Communities program.
“We were basically asking Governor Paterson to rescind the agreement involving S-Comm. The program is going to further terrorize our community and tear our families apart,” said Manisha Vaze from the organization Families for Freedom. “I think it’s important that people know that the name Secure Communities does the opposite of what its name implies. It is masked as something that will benefit our community when in reality people don’t know what the program is all about . . . mass deportation.”
This past May, Paterson signed an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) approving Secure Communities also referred to as “S-Comm.” The program would allow any person arrested by police to have their fingerprints automatically run through an immigration database. However, the program has faced opposition by several city councilmembers and pro-immigration groups.
“I think rallies like this one have a big impact on bringing the issue to the forefront and letting people know what’s going to happen to almost one million New Yorkers or more and letting them know how S-Comm will affect their lives,” said Councilmember Daniel Dromm, who is the chair of the Council’s Immigration Committee. “Sometimes people don’t understand all the arguments to be made about S-Comm and when we hear the words ‘national security’ we tend to act quickly yet this is a warning that we need to think through our national security policy before we act.”
ICE spokesperson Ivan Ortiz said people who oppose the program have difficulty understanding S-Comm’s purpose. Ortiz explained that the program is aimed to identify and remove criminal aliens from state prisons and local jails.
“People are going to be arrested regardless,” Ortiz said. “Of course you don’t expect to be arrested because of how you look, whether it’s Asian, Hispanic, Indian or whatever. If you commit a crime then you can start to worry. S-Comm will simply provide more tools to find out arrestees criminal and immigration histories.”
However, Andres Garcia of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), based in Jackson Heights, is unsure of ICE’s true motives.
“They are saying you have nothing to fear unless you commit a crime, this is not true. They are targeting a specific population for a certain reason: to deport them,” Garcia said. “ICE has made it very clear that they are not trying to be clear. They want to increase tension between the immigrant community and the police.”
ICE expects S-Comm to be deployed to all jurisdictions nation-wide by 2013. As of right now they have 788 jurisdictions in 34 states, New York included.
“Jurisdictions can’t opt out…However, if they wish to not activate on a scheduled date ICE will gladly work with them to determine the appropriate next step,” Ortiz said.
Paterson has from now until the end of the year to rescind the Secure Communities program. Paterson’s acting director of communications Jessica Bassett said given the history of New York as a target for extremists, S-Comm can be a valuable tool to help protect all New Yorkers.
“It is Governor Paterson’s responsibility to balance his administration’s policies on immigration with border security and the very real threat of terrorism,” Basset said. “However, the Governor is advised that this program could unfairly target certain communities, and this is cause for great concern. The Paterson administration is in ongoing discussions with ICE about amending the Secured Communities MOA significantly.”
