US protests mount against immigrant crackdown

Three civil rights organizations are suing the U.S. government to obtain records related to a little-known program known as "Secure Communities" that further involves local and state police in federal immigration enforcement. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law filed the lawsuit. It came as the groups launched "Uncovering the Truth", a week-long national campaign of coordinated actions in more than 10 cities to end police collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "The passage of S.B. 1070 in Arizona should be proof enough of the dangerous and disastrous nature of ICE-police collaboration programs like the so-called Secure Communities program," said Pablo Alvarado, NDLON executive director, referring to the new law in that state. "The president should heed his own advice and act responsibly by reclaiming the federal government's exclusive authority over the nation's immigration laws," he said. "At a time when police and ICE partnerships have clearly failed, ICE is moving swiftly to implement the Secure Communities program in every U.S. jail by 2013," said CCR attorney Sunita Patel. "Contrary to its name, this latest ICE program makes the public less safe. There is no doubt that the program has and will continue to deepen fear and mistrust of the police in our communities."