ACLU Comment on Revelation of Intentional Misinformation at Department of Homeland Security

April 24, 2014 12:00 am

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WASHINGTON – Today a new report from the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee revealed that the former acting Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general ordered changes to a report that dealt with complaints about the Secure Communities program, and agreed to delay the release of the report at the request of a DHS official.

Joanne Lin, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, had this reaction:

“Today’s Senate probe reveals both the extent and depth of DHS’s intentional misinformation regarding the Secure Communities Program and the serious accountability void throughout the department. With the unprecedented growth of immigration and border enforcement over the last decade, that job has never been more important.

“Forcibly deployed nationwide, over the objections of many localities, the Secure Communities program has ensnared many immigrants with clean criminal histories or minor criminal records. Yet the Obama administration remains intransigent in its defense of the program and has refused to institute meaningful reforms. The Secure Communities program is completely tarnished in its rollout, outcomes, and accountability. The ACLU urges the new DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to end Secure Communities and to implement these reforms to immigration detainers.”

For more information about ACLU’s position on immigration detainers: aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/14_4_23_aclu_administrative_recommendations_on_ice_detainers_final.pdf

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