Secure Communities

Today's post is not specifically about the law as it relates to human trafficking. However, according to this report, the Secure Communities program violates basic tenets of the rule of law, and must be discussed. When immigrants fear contacting the police for assistance (which is a natural result of a Secure Communities program), then victims of trafficking and other violent crimes must remain underground and they lose a potential source of help. In this way, programs like Secure Communities lead to the further silencing and victimization of trafficked persons, and that's just no good.

Check it out for yourself: The Warren Institute released a new report Secure Communities by the Numbers: An Analysis of Demographics and Due Process that provides the first-ever analysis of federal data on people who are arrested and placed in deportation proceedings under the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program. The majority of people arrested in a fast-growing federal immigration enforcement program are jailed without bond, without access to a lawyer, and without a court hearing, according to this research.

Here is the link to the report: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Secure_Communities_by_the_Numbers.pdf