Federal fingerprinting program being used in Clark County jails

Federal immigration officials on Tuesday began using a new tool that could greatly increase their ability to identify illegal immigrants in Clark County jails.

The fingerprints of every individual arrested and booked into custody in local jails now will be checked against both FBI criminal history records and immigration records as part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Secure Communities program.

If the fingerprints match someone who has had previous contact with ICE, the system automatically notifies the agency, which can then decide whether to target the person for potential deportation based on previous criminal convictions.

Steven Branch, ICE's regional field office director, emphasized that the program will be used to target higher-level criminals, including those previously convicted of violent offenses or drug trafficking.

"Our priority is the worst of the worst," he said.

Civil rights leaders have criticized the program, saying the fingerprinting database infringes on the constitutional rights of immigrants based upon arrest rather than conviction. They also say such programs harm relationships between police and immigrant communities and make people afraid to report crimes.

The new program will be used in conjunction with another program at the Clark County Detention Center that has generated similar controversy.

That program, called "287(g)" after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, allows specially trained officers at the detention center to determine whether inmates are illegal immigrants and begin deportation proceedings against them.

But 287(g) does not screen every inmate, just those determined to be foreign-born through interviews with corrections officers.

Branch said the Secure Communities program will complement 287(g).

Together the programs "enhance our ability to identify subjects who have been arrested for crimes and are in this country illegally," he said.

The Secure Communities federal database already is being used in Washoe County and has been used in other parts of the country since October 2008. It has so far led to the deportation of 34,600 people who had prior criminal convictions for higher-level crimes, ICE reports.

Contact Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285. Contact Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.