The Feds will begin using fingerprints from NYPD arrests to round up illegal immigrants, despite objections from Governor Cuomo and other New York city officials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told the NYPD and other local police departments in New York that the controversial Secure Communities program will be activated across the state. The program is already running- feeding fingerprint information from the local police to Homeland Security through the FBI.

Last June, Gov. Cuomo unsuccessfully tried to pull New York from the program, which the Feds initially characterized as voluntary, but Homeland Security officials now say it is mandatory. ICE calls Secure Communities their “single most valuable tool” to find and deport dangerous criminals.

The agency would not publicly confirm its activation plans. “It is ICE’s long standing practice to only confirm Secure Communities activations after this enhanced Federal information sharing capacity is deployed in a jurisdiction,” said an ICE spokesman. After much criticism, ICE recently tweaked the program, vowing to wait to try to deport immigrants arrested for minor traffic offenses until they are actually convicted –unless they have a prior record. Secure Communities being activated statewide in Massachusetts, Arkansas and Wyoming very soon, are slated to be up and running nationwide by year 2013.

AN IMMIGRANT HONORED FOR HER MILITARY SERVICE.

As  tribute to a top Air Force nurse who is retiring, officers are sending an American flag to be flown at important places in her life-including the Manhattan building where she became a U.S. citizen. The flag will make its way to the first base where Lt. Colonel Natalie Giscombe served as a nurse – Offut Air force Base in Omaha – and to the last, the Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California.

And it will also fly in front of the Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, where Giscombe , a Panamanian immigrant became a U.S. citizen in 1986.“ I told them it was such a pivotal point for me,” said Giscombe, 46, who immigrated to East New York, Brooklyn, when she was 8 and recalls being teased for speaking Spanish when she first arrived.” We’re definitely trying to live that American Dream,” she said about herself and her cousins, who all left Panama for the U.S. The U.S.  Citizenship and Immigration Services decided to grant the request  honoring Giscombe’s 24 years in the Air Force and even plans to hold a ceremony for her.

Olakunle O. Bolarinwa,

Is a Nightline Family Member Of The Voice Of America {VOA}.

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