Deportation Program May Raise Crime: Report

A federal panel reviewing a contentious US deportation program found that it hurt community policing, potentially leading to “greater levels of crime.” The stated goal of the Secure Communities program, which provides immigration officials with police-obtained fingerprints, was to deport serious criminals. But the program has cracked down on many immigrants who aren’t criminals or have committed only minor crimes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Controversy prompted the federal review.

"If residents do not trust their local police, they are less willing to step forward as witnesses to or victims of crime,” the report warns. The panel calls on the program to ensure it primarily targets those “who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety”—not people guilty of traffic offenses. But the panel’s review has sparked criticism of its own; many of the panel’s members, including union leaders and a former police chief, resigned ahead of the report’s release. “I don't think it went far enough,” said the former head of Sacramento police. (More deportation stories.)