‘Secure Communities’ program was shuttered on Thursday as Obama finalized his immigration executive orders Program allowed immigration authorities to learn when illegal immigrants were arrested for crimes and scheduled for release on bail They could be held for up to an additional 48 hours so federal agents could pick them up and begin immigration or deportation proceedings Now the US will only deport illegal immigrants after they are CONVICTED of a narrower list of more serious offenses – assuming they show up for trial Immigration activists complained that people arrested for misdemeanors, including traffic offenses, were being handed over to ICE agents because they were also in the country illegally Along with his more sensationalized executive order granting some illegal immigrants a chance to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation, President Barack Obama quietly ended a controversial program on Thursday that had deported 283,000 of them after they were arrested for crimes other than border-crossing. The Secure Communities program has been in place in limited form since 2006, and expanded nationwide in 2008. It allowed local law enforcement to hold arrestees and convicts 48 hours after they were officially bailed or released, if they were in the county illegally, so federal agents could pick them up and start immigration proceedings. Instead, the administration has replaced it with a much narrower program that limits the list of qualifying offenses and only lets the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency intervene after an illegal immigrant is convicted. Many make bail and never return to court to face their charges, however. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2844701/Obama-ENDS-program-deported-283-000-criminal-aliens-promising-expel-felons-not-families.html#ixzz3JpS075ca
