WASHINGTON - August 6 - Immigration rights advocates involved in a lawsuit seeking the disclosure of government records relating to the so-called "Secure Communities" (S-Comm) program of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency will hold a press teleconference Tuesday, August 10 at 1pm (Eastern Standard Time), having just received important internal ICE documents via a FOIA complaint submitted this past April. In addition to making these newly released documents public and providing an overview of the case, the advocates will explain the relevance of these most recent findings, which reveal a pattern of dishonesty regarding the true scope and mission of ICE's S-Comm program.

S-Comm, now operating in at least 494 jurisdictions in 27 states, further involves state and local entities in the enforcement of federal immigration law. Although ICE presents S-Comm as an innocuous information sharing program, it functions as a dragnet for funneling people into the mismanaged ICE detention and removal system, potentially creating mini-Arizonas in hundreds of jurisdictions, according to advocates. Particularly problematic S-Comm's mechanism which automatically runs fingerprints through immigration databases for all people arrested and targets them for detention and deportation even if their criminal charges are minor, eventually dismissed, or the result of an unlawful arrest. In addition, S-Comm coerces local police departments into the job of federal immigration enforcement at significant cost to their core policing mission and without full and truthful information as to the scope and impact of the program.

What:  Press Teleconference on ICE documents from FOIA complaint

Who:   Sarahi Uribe, National Day Laborer's Organizers Network           
Bridget Kessler, Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law          
Sunita Patel, the Center for Constitutional Rights           
Local Public Official and Local Community Organizer, TBD

When:  1pm EST, Tuesday, August 10

How:   Journalists: 800 868 1837; participant code is 868895#

Visit CCR's Secure Communities FOIA case page for the text of the April 27th FOIA Complaint. All other relevant documents will also be available on that page at the beginning of the call.