Let’s deport this program

But deportation seems like overkill. Even anti-immigration zealots admit that people like DeMoura are not the targets of this policy. The idea was to rid the country of serious criminals, not people who roll through a stop sign and have never been in trouble before.

Under the program, local law enforcement officials share fingerprints and other information with federal immigration authorities, who determine whether people who have been arrested are in the country illegally and subject to deportation. In theory, Secure Communities serves a laudable purpose: ridding the community of criminals who shouldn’t be here. And at times, it has done that.

But while the program is supposed to be aimed at dangerous offenders, DeMoura’s case and others make it clear that the threat of deportation is being applied much more broadly, and that minor offenders are being caught and deported along with the serious criminals.

Davis has asked that the noncriminal cases be reviewed by the feds, to see if a bit of leniency is in order. He noted that unnecessary deportation will only make all immigrants wary of law enforcement. That’s a legitimate concern. But he should go further and bail out of this program.

In its confusion, the Secure Communities program reflects our immigration policy in general. As a nation we can’t figure out what to do about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. We can’t decide whether we want to deport them, whether we want to build a fence around Texas, or whether people who give them jobs should be subject to prosecution. At the same time, we almost have consensus that illegal immigrants should be able to go to college or to an emergency room. Talk about mixed signals.