Ways the Government Watches You

The "Secure Communities" initiative.Credit: Department of Homeland Security

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency works with state and city law enforcement to share resources on noncitizens who have committed crimes. According to the ICE website, Secure Communities "uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helps to identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement.

"For decades, local jurisdictions have shared the fingerprints of individuals who are booked into jails with the FBI to see if they have a criminal record. Under Secure Communities, the FBI automatically sends the fingerprints to ICE to check against its immigration databases.

"If these checks reveal that an individual is unlawfully present in the United States or otherwise removable due to a criminal conviction, ICE takes enforcement action — prioritizing the removal of individuals who present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by the severity of their crime, their criminal history, and other factors — as well as those who have repeatedly violated immigration laws.”

However, a number of states and cities tried to opt out of Secure Communities because of the concern that people would be deported without criminal proceedings and that the program might infringe on civil liberties. The federal government vetoed their efforts.