The Roman Catholic archdiocese of San Francisco is sponsoring an event Saturday, to express opposition to the federal Secure Communities immigration program. During the event at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is expected to share a new version of his Secure Communities opt-out bill (AB 1081).
The earlier version was based on an implementation agreement between California and Department of Homeland Security. Last year DHS scrapped the arrangement, though still required state participation.
“We had to go back and rethink our approach,” said Ammiano’s spokesman Quintin Mecke. “Since the original agreements that we were going to opt-out of no longer existed.”
Under Secure Communities, local law enforcement is required to share the fingerprints of all arrestees with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE can then issue detainer requests, which is typically an order to hold an individual for a period of up to two days.
“What we’re looking at right now is not opting-out of that process,” said Mecke Friday. But rather setting standards or thresholds for those detainers.”