The ACLU Explains Why a Controversial New Immigration Program Is “a Recipe for Disaster”

Inside the feds’ newest project at a California county jail.

<a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/photo/u-s-immigration-and-customs-officials-deport-undocumented-el-sa-gm107428155-18934420?st=ea55c77">iStock</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


In late 2014, as part of his executive actions on immigration, President Barack Obama scrapped a controversial immigration enforcement program called Secure Communities. For years, advocates had argued the program, which required the police to share arrestees’ fingerprints with federal immigration officials, trampled immigrants’ civil liberties and instilled a deep fear of law enforcement in immigrant communities.

A year and a half later, civil liberties groups have turned their focus to a pilot program at a county jail in Fresno, California, that allows Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) unprecedented access to inmates and their records at the time they’re locked up. If left unchecked, they say, the program could be almost as bad for immigrants as was Secure Communities.

The pilot program was launched in June 2015 by Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims as a way to keep undocumented immigrants who ended up in the Fresno County Jail from slipping through ICE’s fingers—especially those inmates who had committed serious crimes or were repeat offenders. Here’s how it works: When an inmate born outside the country is about to be released, ICE is notified ahead of time so it can review the booking records to see which ones have a criminal history that warrants deportation. On the day the inmate is released, ICE dispatches a transport vehicle and a team of personnel to pick up the inmates and transfer them to one of ICE’s detention centers

However, in a press announcement last week, the ACLU of Northern California called the program secretive and loosely supervised by the jail. The group says that without proper supervision and transparency, ICE could detain even low-level offenders past their release date. It argues that those who haven’t yet been convicted of a crime could be coerced into signing away their rights during questioning—especially if the forms are in English and they have no time to find a lawyer before the interview.

Here’s more of what the ACLU found, based on a public records request and interviews with 11 inmates:

  • Lack of transparency: There are no documents that show how the program was implemented, and there is no written agreement or contract outlining the parameters of the partnership between the jail and ICE.
  • Lack of oversight: According to the ACLU, the sheriff’s office does not monitor or evaluate the program to ensure that the civil rights of inmates are not being violated. Asked about how the jail ensures that ICE really is targeting the “worst of the worst,” Mims replied, “I’m accepting what [ICE officials] are telling me, I have not had one person come to me and say they made a mistake. It hasn’t happened yet.”
  • Surprise interrogations: So far, 174 inmates have been interviewed by ICE since the program began. According to the ACLU, inmates are often given little to no notice that they will be meeting with ICE, which gives them little time to find a lawyer before the interview takes place. Activists say that without a lawyer, inmates could be coerced into signing a voluntary departure form, agreeing to leave the country within a designated amount of time. (ICE points out that voluntary departures are infrequent, accounting for less than 4 percent of the repatriations it carried out last fiscal year).
  • Unclear who’s being deported: Although the ACLU found that 326 inmates were released into ICE custody, they were not able to determine the charges those inmates faced. Immigration advocates worry these could include low-level offenders or inmates who face serious charges but have not yet been convicted. For example, immigration attorney Jessica Smith Bobadilla told Mother Jones that two of her clients were held at Fresno County Jail for low-level, nonviolent offenses and have since been transferred into ICE custody where they remain detained, facing possible deportation. She says one woman was in jail for a probation violation, having been convicted of two nonviolent drug offenses in the past. An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment on the woman’s case, saying she would need more information about the circumstances surrounding it.

Since the program launched in Fresno a year ago, it has spread to three other counties in the state, and immigration experts have said it could provide a blueprint for future immigration enforcement nationwide. That has the ACLU and others concerned.

“ICE has a long track record of abusing its power and trampling people’s rights,” said Angélica Salceda, staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, in a press release. The Fresno County Jail program, she said, was “a recipe for disaster.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate