It came as a disappointment to New Yorkers last week when the Department of Homeland Security defied the wishes of our state and Governor Cuomo by deciding to unilaterally implement the controversial Secure Communities deportation program.

Under the program known as Secure Communities (S-Comm), local police hand over the biometric data of every person arrested and fingerprinted — innocent or guilty — to federal immigration authorities who check it against their databases. If there is a match — whether correct or not — an individual could be sent to detention centers hundreds of miles from home and even deported.

On June 1, Governor Cuomo formally suspended New York’s participation in S-Comm after data released by ICE showed that the program was not meeting its goals and instead was negatively affecting law enforcement activity and public safety while encouraging racial profiling.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement delivered a letter on August 5 to all governors informing them that they no longer believed states had to agree to allow the feds to operate S-Comm within its borders. ICE further informed governors that it will continue to work directly with individual counties to implement the program, and that by 2013, every county in the United States will participate in S-Comm.

The NYCLU is working closely with the governor’s office to determine what New York and Governor Cuomo can do to ensure respect for New York’s decision to refuse participation in S-Comm and continue to protect the rights of all New Yorkers.