This morning dozens of community members along with several elected officials held a press conference with Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition to encourage the Mayor and Police Chief to reject participation in a federal immigrant tracking program called "Secure Communities."

The program would require police officers to contact ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement which is solely responsible for detention and deportation in immigration matters) as soon as individuals were booked through a federal fingerprinting process. This program is the most recent in a series of ICE programs that make local police the contact point between immigrants and ICE agents.

In other cities, the program has led to serious concerns around selective enforcement and racial profiling, expensive re-direction of personnel resources, and an increase in detention. The increase in detention happens because if there is a match between the federal database and a local individual, ICE will place a detainer on that individual. According to the National Immigration Law Center, ICE frequently does not pick up individuals within a 48 hour time period, "leaving them in detention limbo but often without the means to challenge their unlawful detention."

As Sean and others have eloquently and frequently noted, there's a serious problem in community policing when programs like "Secure Communities" start popping up. In a personal case I was familiar with, a father of a student at a local charter was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. He was found to have a match in the ICE database, and was eventually hauled off to detention in a West Coast jail, leaving his family bereft. The rest of his family had cleared immigration and he himself was winding through an appeals process, but a basic interaction with a police officer resulted in a real risk for deportation. The family eventually left Philadelphia for New York City, one more loss of tax contributing individuals and an outstanding student in the school system.

In other cases, PICC has noted that the program can sweep up people who could be victims and witnesses for crimes, or are entirely innocent or cleared of charges. It's not like we have a stellar language access system with our local police (although efforts are being made to improve the situation).

More than 700 individuals and dozens of organizations are signed onto a letter to the Mayor, calling upon him to reject the program. Councilman James Kenney, who's been outstanding on this issue, noted that New York City isn't part of this program.

Philadelphia doesn't need it either.

To view and sign the letter, read about it here and contact PICC.