New America Media, News Report, Anuja Seith , Posted: Jul 15, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — Even as the Obama administration seeks to block Arizona’s SB 1070 from taking effect, federal authorities are pushing cities in California and elsewhere to adopt a new “voluntary” program that will lead to the same kind of racial profiling as the Arizona law, immigrant rights advocates charged yesterday.

The Secure Communities program, or S-Comm, was introduced in California in April 2009 and became active in San Francisco last month.

Counties around the Bay Area have been compelled to adopt the program, which requires local law enforcement to automatically and instantly share with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the fingerprints of any immigrant who is arrested, even if that individual is later proven to be innocent or is found guilty of an extremely minor offense.

Although U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims that S-Comm promotes public safety, the agency’s own data show that 90 percent of people referred to it during S-Comm’s first year were arrested for relatively minor offenses such as traffic tickets or misdemeanors. An alarming 5 percent of people identified under the program were U.S. citizens.

The broad nature of the program is causing anxiety in immigrant communities, said members of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network (SFILEN), who sponsored yesterday’s news briefing.

“Immigrants are an important part of our country’s fabric, and even though this program is not federal law, as it is not approved by Congress, it has been forced upon us,” said Christopher Punongbayan, deputy director of the Asian Law Caucus.

“It is a voluntary program that was initiated in the Bush administration and is continuing in the Obama administration,” said Francisco Ugarte, an immigration attorney at SFILEN. “I am worried that it will open doors to racial profiling by local enforcement officers who may be encouraged to overcharge or falsely arrest innocent immigrant residents.”

Although numerous elected officials and law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area have opposed the implementation of S-Comm, saying it raises serious civil rights concerns, ICE has turned a turned a deaf ear, immigration advocates said.

Meanwhile, as state and federal officials offer little guidance about how cities can opt out of S-Comm, the San Francisco Police Commission has ordered an audit to see how the program is implemented.

Un Un Che, representing the group Chinese for Affirmative Action, described firsthand how the program has affected her family. “The other day, I wanted to report an incident to the police, but since I am not fluent in English, I didn’t have the confidence,” the mother of three recounted through a translator. “I was apprehensive that the police might misinterpret me and arrest me.”

Community advocate Veronica Nieto, of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, said S-Comm will create another barrier between police and women who face assault or domestic violence. “It will deter these women from going to police, both when they are victims and when they are witnesses to a crime.”

Punongbayan pointed to San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance, which came about in 1989 to protect refugees from repressive regimes in Central America. “According to the ordinance, no local resources should be spent on immigration enforcement. But S-Comm requires local police to share fingerprints and so, in a way, it violates this ordinance.”

What is unique about this program, immigrant advocates said, is that technology gives ICE a virtual presence in every jail, as local law enforcement agencies automatically send fingerprints to a DHS database. If the federal database search results in a “match,” ICE can request to hold the individual at the local facility for an additional 48 hours.

Organizers claimed that ICE holds are triggered at the point of fingerprinting and the jail is notified within 35 to 40 minutes, which is not enough time to prove one’s innocence.

Some speakers expressed the concern that in the Bay Area, S-Comm might particularly impact South Asian communities, which have been subject to racial profiling since the terrorist attacks of Sept, 11, 2001.