Criminal Convictions, Deportation, and Inequality: A Case Study of the Secure Communities Program

• In Event: The Criminalization-to-Deportation Pipeline: Processes of Crimmigration Enforcement and Deportation

Abstract

Our understanding of how immigration enforcement determines criminal history has been informed exclusively by the rhetoric of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities. This paper complements existing research on crimmigration by using ICE data from the Secure Communities program from 2009 to 2018 to assess factors related to the criminal records of those arrested by ICE. Starting with the adoption of a program called Secure Communities in 2008, a shift began in directive collaborative efforts between ICE and criminal justice agencies to target noncitizens with criminal records. Our analyses examine ICE determinations of the seriousness of the criminal record and factors related to immigration court charges and status determinations. We find that ICE’s determinations of the highest priority deportable levels were overinclusive to include a host of crimes outside of serious violent crimes. Likewise, we find that the region of ICE arrest, those of Caribbean and African descent, and the priority level status influence whether ICE charges a noncitizen arrested in Secure Communities with deportable charges related to criminal activity or as undocumented. Lastly, we find that even the lowest priority level has consequences in whether a noncitizen is deportable on immigration charges based on the criminal record.

Authors

• Edwin Grimsley, Baruch College, CUNY

• Lidia Vasquez, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY