DemocracyNow.org – Many are criticizing the Obama administration for unilaterally pushing ahead with a controversial federal immigration enforcement policy called Secure Communities that requires local police to forward fingerprints of every person they arrest to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In recent months, the governors of Illinois, Massachusetts and New York announced they are pulling out of the program, but now officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) say it is mandatory. ICE has also created a task force to study possible reforms. Democracy Now! hosts a debate on Secure Communities program with Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, who helped ICE begin Secure Communities as a pilot program in Texas and is a member of the Secure Communities Task Force; and Chris Newman, Legal Director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, one of the immigrant rights groups spearheading national organizing efforts against Secure Communities.

For the complete transcript, to download the podcast, or for more Democracy Now! reports on comprehensive immigration reform issues, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/18/should_us_end_secure_communities_a