The aggressive outreach follows Patrick’s refusal to join the program in June, amid a volatile national debate over whether Secure Communities is enhancing public safety or diminishing it by making immigrants afraid to report crime. The governors of Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have all criticized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for using the initiative to deport many immigrants who have never been convicted of a crime.
But supporters say Secure Communities is also netting many violent offenders, which is increasingly its focus, and that it should be expanded. Boston is the only city in the state enrolled in Secure Communities.
“I am working on it,’’ said Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who said he met with federal officials last month about joining. “We’re going to implement the program as quickly as ICE will give it to us.’’
The sheriffs have, for some time, been vocal in the news media in their support of the program. Nicole Navas, agency spokeswoman, would not say whether it would be activated in other cities and towns in Massachusetts before the end of 2013, when it will become mandatory nationwide. To activate Secure Communities, US officials say they first need enough federal agents, jail space for detainees, and vehicles to transport them to make it work. Secure Communities was launched in 2008, after it was offered as a pilot program in Boston, and is now in 43 states and Puerto Rico.
Secure Communities works by tapping into a longstanding relationship between local and state police and the FBI. For years, local law enforcement have sent the fingerprints of people arrested and booked to the FBI to check their criminal records. Under Secure Communities, the FBI shares those fingerprints with immigration officials, to determine if the person is here illegally and to pursue action against them.
