Fingerprint sharing led to deportation of 47,000

WASHINGTON – Records show that about 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails.
About one-quarter of those kicked out of the country did not have criminal records, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that have filed a lawsuit. The groups plan to release the data Tuesday and provided early copies to The Associated Press.
As issue is a fingerprint-sharing program known as Secure Communities that the government says is focused on getting rid of the "worst of the worst" criminal immigrants from the U.S.
Immigration advocates say that the government instead spends too much time on lower-level criminals or non-criminals.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement divides crimes into three categories, with Level 1 being the most serious. Most of those deported committed Level 2 or 3 crimes or were non-criminals, a monthly report of Secure Communities statistics shows.
"ICE has pulled a bait and switch, with local law enforcement spending more time and resources facilitating the deportations of bus boys and gardeners than murderers and rapists and at considerable cost to local community policing strategies, making us all less safe," said Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Markowitz's clinic, the National Day Laborer Organizers Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights had requested and sued for the statistics. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released some of the documents late Monday.
Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said non-criminals still may be people who have failed to show up for deportation hearings, who recently crossed the border illegally or who re-entered the country after deportation. He also said it's important to remember that more people commit crimes that are considered Level 2 and 3.
Secure Communities is "a beneficial partnership tool for ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies helping to identify, prioritize and remove convicted criminal aliens not only from the communities, but also from the country," Rocha said.
The Obama administration wants Secure Communities operating nationwide by 2013.
As of Aug. 3, 494 counties and local and state agencies in 27 states were sharing fingerprints from jail bookings through the program.
From October 2008 through June of this year, 46,929 people identified through Secure Communities were removed from the U.S., the documents show. Of those, 12,293 were considered non-criminals.

SOURCE:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_immigration_local_enforcement

 PERSONAL COMMENTARY:

 I'm glad that these illegal aliens are being found and deported.  I do agree that the most dangerous ones should be rid of first, but any illegal alien that we get rid of is to the benefit of the American taxpayer.  As a result of illegal residence, taxpayers pay billions of dollars to support these aliens.  Here it is specifically outlined:

 
A report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) cited several interesting statistics based on census data. Some of these facts may be familiar to long-time readers… but I wanted each of you to know the enormous costs placed on the United States…
Our government continues to claim that the war on terror is bankrupting us. But what about these numbers? You do the math…

• $11 billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
• Illegal households only pay about one-third the amount of federal taxes that non-illegal households pay.
• Illegal households create a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion a year. If given amnesty, this number could grow to more than $29 billion.
• $1.9 billion dollars a year is spent on food-assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
• $1.6 billion is spent on the federal prison and court system for illegal aliens.
• $2.5 billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
• About 21 percent of the population of U.S. prisons is classified as “noncitizens” from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. About 5 percent is listed as “unknown.”

SOURCE:   http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/how-much-do-illegal-immigrants-really-cost-the-united-states/

Either way we go,  be it amnesty or total deportation, money will be lost, but we will save money in the long run no matter what.