Mayor DeStefano addresses issues with ICE program

New Haven, Conn. (WTNH) - Police and city leaders in New Haven spoke out Monday about the issues they're having with a federal program designed to track down illegal immigrants.

It's called Secure Communities, but New Haven Mayor John DeStefano says he has some concerns about it.

It was 2007 when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, ran a sweep of Fair Haven arresting about 30 people.

Gran Rodeo owner Santos Lucero remembers the fear in his community.

"The people didn't want to get out of their house," Lucero said. "They wanted to stay in their house, they didn't want to go to work."

That fear is what worries and angers Mayor DeStefano.

"Of those that were picked up, they had one common characteristic," DeStefano said, "they were brown."

DeStefano revealed that starting Wednesday, ICE will unveil it's Secure Communities program. Basically, someone who is arrested is fingerprinted, and those prints are then sent to ICE to enter into an immigration database. A police force then may be required to detain the suspect.

"Characteristic of ICE enforcement is just how arbitrary it is," said DeStefano, "in terms of where it's enforced, who it's enforced against, and what the consequences are."

"I speak for the overwhelming majority of America's cities police chiefs, because we were asked," said New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman, "and overwhelmingly, we spoke, and said this does not help our job, we are not the immigration police."

Lucero believes if someone is breaking the law consequences must be paid for.

"People do the wrong things, I don't have a problem," Lucero said. "They should be arrested."

However, Lucero, whose opinion mirrors that of Mayor DeStefano, worries that if someone is here illegally, but pays taxes, has a job, and is breaking no laws, then ICE should focus their efforts elsewhere.

"People making a living," Lucero said, "I think we should leave them alone."

"This is the same federal government that goes into East Haven and tells East Haven what's wrong with them," Mayor DeStefano said. "The intellectual dishonesty of this, to me, is astounding."

Mike Lawlor, Undersecretary for Criminal Justice, said Monday in a statement, "...this policy could lead to a situation where victims and witnesses in the immigrant community would be reluctant to cooperate with local and state enforcement, something that would completely undermine the goals of this program."

DeStefano says they will adhere to the program, but that this is a problem the federal government created by not having an immigration system that works.

ICE says they've removed more than 40,000 violent criminals in the United States due to the Secure Communities program.