Tag Archives: illegal immigration

This article dealt with many of the issues we have been discussing in class. The U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has developed new tools for identifying and  ultimately deporting illegal immigrants nation-wide. The main tool that they have created for doing so is the Secure Communities Finger-Print sharing program. This program helped to successfully convict and deport Francisco Gomez-Kiroga, a man who had been previously deported 4 times and voluntarily removed himself 19 times. He was pulled over for making an illegal left turn and this new technology helped discover his true identity (he presented himself to law enforcement officers as a different man) as well as his previous offenses. Using a program such as this one is a good way to discover someone’s true identity- perhaps it can be said that some illegal immigrants are the confidence men of today.

However, this system employed by the ICE has been subject to much criticism. Many of the people ultimately deported by this system have not committed any serious crime (most have been driving infractions). Critics claim that this is a waste of the ICE’s limited resources which should be spent targeting dangerous criminals. The thing that I think is the most alarming about this system is that it perpetuates racial profiling. Faced with much pressure to keep deporting illegals, law enforcement officers are using driving infractions as a way to pinpoint people who “look illegal.” As evidenced by the historical precedent we studied in class, this is a slippery slope. I think that in the future there will be litigation that deals with racial profiling in situations such as these.