Should Local Law Enforcement Work with Immigration Authorities?

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Should Local Law Enforcement Work with Immigration Authorities? ()

The Obama Administration says the program Secure Communities is "crucial" to finding criminal immigrants and deporting them. The fingerprints of every person booked by local police are checked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the stated goal of exporting illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes. But the reality is different. ICE's own files reveal that in Illinois nearly one-third of those deported had no criminal convictions at all. Democratic Governor Pat Quinn says he's pulling out of the program. The Sheriff of San Francisco, with 30 years on the job, says he's pulling out, too. In Los Angeles, the ICE website shows that 12,741 immigrants have been deported because of the program since August, 2009, but one-fourth, or 2,961, had no criminal convictions at all. We hear from both sheriffs, and from an organization that gathered much of the data on Secure Communities from ICE files under the Freedom of Information Act.

Guests:

• Michael Hennessey: Sheriff of San Francisco County
• Lee Baca: Sheriff of Los Angeles County
• Chris Newman: National Day Laborers Organizing Network, @newman_chris

Links:

• California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-SF) on Trust Act legislation
• LAT story on noncriminals swept up in federal deportation program
• 'To the Point' on the prospects for immigration reform

Reporter's Notebook

Former Death Row Warden to Head Anti-Death Penalty Group ()

Jeanne Woodford resigned as Governor Schwarzenegger's Director of Corrections and Rehabilitation four years ago. Before that, she spent 26 years at San Quentin prison, where she became the warden and presided over four executions. Now she's taking another job -- as Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, a group working for the abolition of capital punishment. 

Guests:

• Jeanne Woodford: Death Penalty Focus

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Can Man Control the Mighty Mississippi River? ()

Since the great flood of 1927 killed hundreds of people, the Army Corps of Engineers has built 2000 miles of levees to tame the Mississippi. Now the system's being tested as never before, as the Corps is faced with opening spillways to devastate some places in order to save others. At stake either way are homes, businesses, billions in property damage and entire communities.  Is the River untamable after all? We hear from the Corps and its critics and from the Mayor of Vicksburg, Mississippi, one city that's bracing for a catastrophe.

Guests:

• Paul Winfield: Mayor of Vicksburg
• George 'Thatch' Shepard: US Army Corps of Engineers
• Michael Grunwald: Time magazine, @MikeGrunwald
• Craig Colten: Louisiana State University
• David Welky: University of Central Arkansas

Links:

• Army Corps' Facebook site for flood information
• Grunwald on controlling the Mississippi
• Welky's 'The Thousand-Year Flood: The Ohio-Mississippi Disaster of 1937'
• Colten's 'An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature'