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County to institute Secure Communities program

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Staff

By Margot Lester
Staff Writer

Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass announced this week his decision to participate in the Secure Communities program, part of the Department of Homeland Security’s controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. The ICE program has come under fire for using local police and sheriff’s departments to enforce federal immigration law and policy.

Recently, Chatham County commissioners passed a resolution opposing participation in ICE, following on a similar resolution passed last year by their Orange County counterparts. The Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which monitors immigrants’ rights, met to discuss the issue Wednesday night and the sheriff will attend Thursday’s Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting to address commissioners’ and citizen’s concerns.

Pendergrass’ decision to participate in the Safe Communities program does not signify participation in ICE itself. Pendergrass signed up for the initiative because it allows faster identification of individuals through fingerprints and can verify a person’s true identity, aliases and outstanding warrants from anywhere in the country. Pendergrass said he does not plan to use any immigration-status data that may be available through the system.

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