At least two Middle Georgia counties are participating in a federal immigration program that helps local law enforcement identify whether inmates are in the country legally.

The program, known as Secure Communities, allows law enforcement to check the fingerprints of inmates against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement records to determine inmates’ immigration status. The program is expected to be nationwide by 2013.

Law enforcement officials say Secure Communities helps make booking easier and local areas safer. Meanwhile, the program has drawn strong criticism in recent weeks from critics who say immigrants may be less willing to report crimes for fear of deportation and that the program does not distinguish offenders of serious crimes from lesser ones.

For the most part, jail booking procedures, such as fingerprinting, remain the same.

In addition to a decades-long practice of sharing fingerprints through an FBI database to check whether someone has an existing record, Secure Communities takes those prints to be compared against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, records to see if someone is in the country illegally or removable for a criminal offense.

Forty-seven percent of local jurisdictions across the country were participating in the program as of Aug. 2.

Of 43 Georgia counties participating in the Secure Communities program, Houston County was the first in Middle Georgia to get on board in March. It was implemented in Monroe County in July.

Response from law enforcement

Participation in Secure Communities expands on practices that were already in place at the Houston County Detention Center, with authorities there already contacting ICE officials when foreign-born people were in their custody, said Capt. Beth Shafer.

Besides the cost of housing inmates, Houston County does not incur additional costs from participation, she said.

According to Shafer, the program allows law enforcement to check on the person’s immigration status with ICE in a matter of hours, as opposed to days in the past. Secure Communities also helps them when suspects give aliases and allows them to release those who are not deportable more quickly.

“Fingerprints don’t lie,” Shafer said.

Monroe County Sheriff John Bittick said having Secure Communities in place also makes the booking process more seamless.

“It’s another tool in the toolbox,” he said.

Law enforcement officials have a responsibility to keep the public safe, no matter the national origin of the criminal, said Bittick. “I don’t think anyone … wants to have someone committing a serious crime to be in the community. They expect law enforcement to do whatever they can to keep them off the streets,” he said.

Houston County became part of the program partly because of its high foreign-born population -- which includes migrant workers, those affiliated with Robins Air Force Base and employees of high-tech companies, Shafer said.

As of June 30, 17 people identified as illegal immigrants were administratively arrested or booked into ICE custody in Houston County. Of those, 10 had been previously convicted of a crime of various levels at the time of booking, while seven did not have previous criminal convictions.

Those charges include DUI and other traffic violations. While those may seem like relatively minor infractions to some, they can have major consequences on the lives and property of others, Shafer said.

While the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, those who want to enter must do so legally, she said.

“There are legal ways to do that. When you’ve crossed the border, you’ve already committed an offense,” she said. “We need to enforce the laws as equally as other laws.”

Opposition to Secure Communities

Aug. 16, people across the country, including in Atlanta, participated in the National Day of Action to deliver petitions to President Barack Obama’s campaign and Democratic Party offices, calling for the end of Secure Communities.

By Thursday, the Obama administration announced it would review the cases of 300,000 immigrants facing deportation and deemed “low-priority,” with the possibility they may stay in the U.S. The move will help officials focus on those who are involved with more serious crimes, according to the administration.

Some critics of Secure Communities, such as Roberto Lovato, co-founder of Hispanic advocacy website presente.org and organizer of the National Day of Action, said that doesn’t do enough. According to him, the program encourages racial profiling and fear in the immigrant community. He also feels limited police resources are wasted pursuing immigrants for minor violations.

Locally, some say increased immigration enforcement has its problems, too. Rafael Galarza, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana el Mana in Perry, said he has been the victim of racial profiling by law enforcement in recent months. Galarza, who is Puerto Rican and a U.S. citizen, said he was stopped by local law enforcement seven times in May, and twice in one day, because he is someone of Hispanic descent. He said law enforcement officers have expressed surprise he has a driver’s license, which those who are in the country illegally cannot obtain in Georgia. Galarza also said there have been mix-ups with family members over identifying documentation.

“In part it’s good, but the way it’s being executed involves discrimination,” he said.

There is also fear among his Spanish-speaking congregation, which includes members from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico and other countries, to the point where some don’t want to go to church.

“It’s not working the way it’s supposed to work,” he said. “I don’t agree with it.”

To contact writer Andrea Castillo, call 256-9751.