REP. LUIS V. GUTIERREZ REACTION TO HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON SECURE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM

Absent Swift and Fundamental Reforms, Secure Communities Will Continue to Fail to Keep our Communities Safe

November 30, 2011

Media Contact: Douglas Rivlin (202) 225-8203

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Washington, DC) – Today as the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement convenes for its hearing on the Secure Communities program ("Is Secure Communities Keeping Our Communities Secure?"), Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) calls on Republicans to stop blocking serious immigration reform and the Department of Homeland Security to suspend the deeply flawed Secure Communities program.

"Despite record numbers of deportations under the Obama Administration, Republicans have not yet introduced any legislation to comprehensively address our broken immigration system," Rep. Gutierrez said.  "Republicans continue to politicize the issue of immigration rather than work with Democrats, in a bipartisan way, to fix our system so that we reestablish legality and control."

"I suspect Republicans are holding this hearing on Secure Communities because they want the Department of Homeland Security to follow them down the rabbit hole in pursuit of a United States where 11 million undocumented immigrants with families and roots here magically disappear," said Congressman Gutierrez.

"We need only look to Arizona, Alabama, and South Carolina for a view of chaos that happens in communities when overreaching and draconian immigration rules are enacted in the name of law and order: U.S. citizen children stay away from schools in fear, families go deeper into hiding, small businesses go belly up, and whole neighborhoods distrust their own local police."

Secure Communities is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that screens the fingerprints of everyone arrested by local and state law enforcement.  The program was conceived to identify immigrants who are threats to public safety in the nation's jails and to ensure that those who aim to harm the U.S. are deported.  However, the majority of deportees under the program continue to be those who pose no threat to the United States or their local communities, and many have family ties, U.S. citizen children, and deep roots in this country.

"Despite reforms announced this summer and a set of recommendations from a DHS task force of experts, Secure Communities continues to fall far short of its purported goals," Gutierrez said.  "I ask that DHS not be swayed by Republicans' political posturing and fantasies.  Secure Communities should stop snagging and deporting immigrants with broken taillights, and states and localities should be allowed to opt out of the program if they determine it is in the best interest of public safety and the greater good in their own states.  I don't think Secretary Napolitano can fix Secure Communities, so it should be suspended entirely."

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