Yesterday Nancy Pelosi called the Secure Communities program a "waste of taxpayer money." Democratic officials from several other states with large immigrant populations are also speaking out against the program, which is widely acknowledged as missing the mark and is responsible for deporting many harmless people:
The Obama Administration claims that "Secure Communities" (or S-Comm, as it is widely known) is intended to catch and deport hardened criminals, but it has drastically missed the mark. Instead, the government's own data shows that 62% of those deported were never convicted of a crime or were involved in low-level offenses, like traffic violations. And in light of recent polling, it would be wise for the Administration to rethink wanting to implement this [flawed] program nationwide, especially as it doesn't work right now. Just yesterday, Latino Decisions and ImpreMedia released polling which found that immigration is the top issue driving the Latino vote. According to the poll, many Latinos have a personal connection to the immigration debate:
53% of poll respondents reported personally knowing an undocumented person, whether a relative, friend, or co-worker. Additionally, 25% of respondents reported personally knowing someone who “faced detention or deportation for immigration reasons.”
If I didn't know better, I'd swear that President Obama is courting the Republican vote.
Thus, both parties have work to do if they want to court the Latino vote. According to the poll:
65% - 19% margin, Latino voters trust President Obama and Democrats more “to make the right decisions when it comes to immigration policy” compared with Republicans. Yet the news wasn’t all good for Democrats, as 43% of respondents said Democrats in the U.S. Congress were “ignoring or avoiding” immigration reform vs. only 33% who said they were “working on passing” immigration reform.
