Program aims to better identify illegal immigrants

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Called a "major advance" in the way law enforcement handles deportations and serious criminal offences by illegal immigrants, a new partnership was announced Wednesday.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary John Morton, who oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, joined six Utah sheriffs and other state agencies to announce the immigration agency's Secure Communities initiative is expanding into the Beehive State.

As part of the program, the fingerprints of every person booked into jail will be run through Homeland Security's national database to check for illegal immigrant status.

"This is literally going to transform the face of immigration enforcement," Morton said.

Until a week ago, the Salt Lake, Davis and Utah county jails all would run the fingerprints of people booked into jail in an FBI database. If people suspected of being illegal immigrants were flagged, immigration agents would travel to the jail and interview them to determine whether they were U.S. citizens.

Under the new program, fingerprints, which are scanned into a computer as opposed to the old way of using ink, are put into the much larger Homeland Security database in Maryland, which includes an estimated 100 million records from such sources as criminal files, visa applications and green cards. If a match is found, the jail and immigration officials are notified immediately.

"We're going to be able to tell what they have on their hands at the moment of arrest," Morton said.

In the first week of use, the Salt Lake County Jail identified more than 30 people convicted or charged with a serious crime who might be eligible for deportation. Four of those suspects faced first-degree felony charges, including aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault, Morton said. In the next two months, Cache, Weber and Box Elder counties plan to install the program.

Morton stressed this was not a form of profiling, because only people who were booked into jail would have their prints checked.

"The focus is on people who are criminals," he said. "Not a civil infraction, a crime."

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder called immigration one of the biggest issues among citizens.

"There is an incredible balance between the rights of our citizens and the needs of law enforcement," he said.

Winder called Operation Community Shield the "perfect balance" of protecting individual civil rights versus identifying those who commit criminal acts.