Obama Admin Deports Domestic Violence Victims, Non-Criminals

So, this shouldn’t be news to you, but here it is: the Obama Administration’s Secure Communities didn’t just target the “criminals” supposedly meant to be deported through the program, but other people, such as victims of domestic violence. About half of the people targeted are, actually, not criminals.

We’ve written about Secure Communities before, the official Secure Communities website notes that it targets “criminal aliens” (like, what, the ones from “Fire In The Sky”?) to make the U.S. more secure, but a story by The Los Angeles Times tells another story:

More than once, Norma recalls, she yearned to dial 911 when her partner hit her. But the undocumented mother of a U.S.-born toddler was too fearful of police and too broken of spirit to do so.

In October, she finally worked up the courage to call police — and paid a steep price…Norma was swept into the wide net of Secure Communities, a federal program launched in 2008 with the stated goal of identifying and deporting more illegal immigrants “convicted of serious crimes…”

Under the program, fingerprints of all inmates booked into local jails and cross-checked with the FBI‘s criminal database are now forwarded by that agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be screened for immigration status. Officials said the new system would focus enforcement efforts on violent felons such as those convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping.

This is the best part: about half of those identified by Secure Communities are not criminals, The Times reported.

So, then, we have to ask ourselves: if a program that supposedly targets criminals doesn’t really target criminals, but immigrants in general, either there’s a huge lie inherent in the program to begin with, or it’s being administered improperly. Logically, there’s no other option. What do you think about that?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD