SAN FRANCISCO – A broad coalition of immigrant rights advocates gathered on Thursday at the Dolores Street Community Services to protest a new federal immigration program called Secure Communities of S-Comm.

“This program is not federal law and has not been approved by Congress. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has forced this upon our sanctuary city under a shroud of secrecy and confusion,” said Christopher Punongbayan of the Asian Law Caucus.

S-Comm compels local enforcement agencies to automatically share with ICE the fingerprints of any immigrant who is arrested.

Even immigrants accused of extremely minor offenses, such as not paying a traffic fine, could be reported to ICE for deportation.

Punongbayan said it does not matter if you are proven innocent of any wrongdoing.

“S-Comm makes even the innocent vulnerable to getting deported,” Punongbayan said.

Punongbayan added that S-Comm will discourage immigrants to report crime.  

“This breaks the trust between local enforcement agencies and the people,” he said.

The S-Comm program is now being implemented in over 200 jurisdictions all over the United States. The program went into effect in San Francisco in June.

Francisco Ugarte of the San Francisco Legal and Education Network said this program violates the Sanctuary Ordinance in San Francisco.

“For 20 years, San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance has helped undocumented immigrants contribute to and participate in our communities. Now that S-Comm is in place, I’ve been asked what that means for our local police. S-Comm opens doors to racial profiling by local law enforcements who may be incentivized to overcharge or falsely arrest innocent immigrant residents,” Ugarte said.

ICE plans to implement S-Comm in all states by 2011, and in all prisons across the country by 2013.

Immigrants and their advocates said that unless President Obama passes a law on comprehensive immigration reform, there will be more measures targeting immigrants which will not only tear families apart but put communities in a state of uncertainty. Balitang America