Today I gave a current event on something called the Secure Communities program. This program was created by the Bush administration in 2008. On average 1 million illegal immigrants are arrested each year. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that with this program which consists of screening the finger prints of people who are arrested by local poilice departments in participating communities. As of right now there are 750 durisdictions in 34 states praticipating in the program. A problem that Illegal Immigrant Activist believe will be a direct outcome of the program is it will draw away illegal immigrants from reporting a crime or testifying in court. The Department of Homeland Security has said that the program only involves people who are arrested. The Program is done by taking the finger print of the person arrested and is sent through the Department of Homeland Securities databases and if there is'nt a match the person will then be further screened as an illegal immigrant. The Department of Homeland Security has also informed that the program will be manditory for all counties in the United States.
A question that was asked during class was- How long does the screening process take if the program was added to the average police screening?
The answer to that is about another 30 minutes will be added to go through the databases but if flaged you will then be detained for further screening that could last up to 2 days.
PROBING QUESTION:
Should the program be run by the individual states or the Federal Government and why?
I believe that this program should be run by the individual states. Because, unlike how immigration is completely controlled by the Feds, the many States would be able to make their own ammendments, or fixes, to this program, without the Fed's consent. This would also put more control to the State systems towards controlling their own illegal immigration problems. With this program in their hands, they would be able to detain more illegals, and make it a more safer area. Also, with it being in control of State systems, and not Federal control, the problems that occured when the Fed sued Arizona for their law (which they had every right to make that law) would not occur in this situation.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(I accidentally posted on Adam's for the one that got deleted) Anyways...
ReplyDeleteI disagree with what Garrett said above because I think that if the program was run by one group of people, the Federal Government, then the program would be more organized and less chaotic. If every individual state had their own way of running the program, then it would just be unorganized I think. If you have different ways of doing things, then that can lead to some problems. One of the problems being that some immigrants would be caught, and others get the free ticket.
I agree with Emily, but also want to add the point that immigration is a responsibility of the federal government. And this includes the actual act of immigration along with everything that goes with it, such as visas, citizenship, greencards etc. The states have no authority to control something like that which is a national concern.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Emily and Justin, having the program run by individual states would make everything unorganized and the program would probably be shut down for its ineffectiveness. The Federal Government should be able to run the programs, because that way it could file all the data from individual states and run the same programs so each state would be following specific guidelines. If each state were to run the programs themselves, then each state would interpret how to deal with illegal immigrants in various ways, so nobody would be able to tell which program would be effective and which one would not. Not to mention that the Federal Government would hold more power over what can be done for illegal immigrants than the power of an individual state. So instead of each state power trying to fight each other, it would be better if every state were to agree on a system made by the Federal Government in order to be more organized.
ReplyDeletei think that the program should be run by the federal government because it is their job not the states job. i also disagree with garret on the fact that the federal government wouldn't have a say in the state legislature, if a state makes a law that is unconstitutional then the federal government can come in and tell them to change it
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I think that the camps wouldn't work unless they are federally ran. If they were state run, paperwork upon paperwork would have to be filed in order to switch detainees from camp to camp. They would have to be extradited. If it was on a federal jurisdiction, it would not matter whether or not they extradite the prisoners. And above that, the borders leading to a different nation aren't owned by states, they're federal/national borders. A single state can't protect ourselves from an invasion, we need to use border patrol to do so.
ReplyDeleteI think that the camps should be run federally. I understand that in some states the immigration rates are higher than others, but immigration is a federal problem. Its the countries issues for people comming in and out of the country not the states. The state can have maybe minimun control of who enters the state but cannot control who enters the country. Also its more of an issue for the Home:And security and what they believe should be done to illegal immigrants found within our country.
ReplyDelete