Special to CCN

The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office has become one of three county departments in the state to implement a new immigrant identification program.

On Feb. 15, the sheriff’s office began the Secured Communities Program in the Arapahoe County Detention Facility. Arapahoe is one of three counties in the state that will pilot this initiative in their jails along with the Department of Corrections Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center.

As a pilot site, the sheriff’s office works through the systems and procedures of the Secured Communities Program to ensure a smooth transition to the program for the other sheriff’s offices across the state.

The Secured Communities initiative is operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program allows the Arapahoe County Detention Facility to electronically submit biometric data (fingerprints) of every person booked into the facility to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, who will forward the information on to six different federal data bases.

Within two hours from the electronic submission, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office will receive information regarding an inmate’s immigration status and a determination of ICE placing a deportation detainer on the arrestee who is an illegal alien.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson stated “this is a very important program that will have a positive impact upon public safety, will enhance our ability to identify criminal aliens, and will focus upon the timely deportation of those who continue to victimize our community.”

Both the County Sheriffs of Colorado and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police support the state’s participation in the program. The Department of Homeland Security anticipates implementation of the Secured Communities Program will be mandatory nationwide in 2013.