Jeh Johnson: ‘Fresh look’ at Secure Communities immigration enforcement
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday gave the most specific indication yet that the Obama administration plans to revamp a controversial federal immigration enforcement program as part of its deportation review.
In an interview on PBS NewsHour, Johnson said he’s taking a “fresh look” at Secure Communities, a program that since 2008 has called on local law enforcement officials to hand over fingerprints of people booked into jails to federal immigration authorities.
But “the program has become very controversial,” Johnson said in the PBS interview. “And I told a group of sheriffs and chiefs that I met with a couple days ago that I thought we needed a fresh start.” He’s been conveying a similar message in conversations with mayors and governors, Johnson added. That coincides with the message from a group of law enforcement officials who met with Johnson and President Barack Obama on Tuesday. Officials who attended said it appears the administration is headed for a “reboot” of the Secure Communities program. Immigrant-rights advocates have been highly critical of Secure Communities, because it has led to deportations of undocumented immigrants with minor violations. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill and advocates are calling on the administration to scrap it altogether.
When asked whether those changes to Secure Communities could come in the “near term,” Johnson replied: “I believe it will and it should.”
The Homeland Security chief was less definitive about another part of his review: whether the administration will expand a 2012 initiative that halted deportations of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
Advocates have been calling on the administration to broaden that program, perhaps to parents and other family members of young undocumented immigrants who are protected by the 2012 directive.
The 2012 program is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA for short. When asked about a potential DACA expansion, Johnson stressed that whatever the administration decides to do, it has to do “within the confines of existing law.”
“I have talked to a number of individuals, concerned groups about the potential for expanding the DACA program, revising our removal priorities,” Johnson said. “And I would say that we have to be careful not to preempt Congress in certain areas.”
