Every county in Wisconsin is now taking part in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Secure Communities strategy, which uses fingerprints to identify legal and illegal immigrants with a criminal record.
The ICE strategy, which was first activated in Wisconsin Jan. 11, allows for immigrant information to be shared at the federal, state and local level.
Sheriff's departments around the state submit fingerprints to the attorney general's office, which then submits them to the FBI. The ICE then requests them from the FBI, according to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's spokesperson Bill Cosh.
The ICE said the previous system only allowed for fingerprints to be compared to the Department of Justice's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, whereas the new system will also check fingerprints against FBI records.
Originally, Wisconsin immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera condemned this program, but shortly after reversed their stance.
""Though it does allow for greater collaboration between state police and Immigrations and Customs and Enforcement, Secure Communities does NOT grant local and state law enforcement the authority to stop and question anyone about their immigration status,"" the group said in a statement.
Cosh also said the ICE receives all fingerprints, except for those of juveniles. Once it receives the information, it only deals with those who have committed more serious crimes, who are known as ""Level 1 offenders.""
The ICE hopes that the program will be used nationwide by 2013 so every state can share biometric information. Now that all 72 Wisconsin counties are participating, a total of 969 jurisdictions and 37 states are involved in the program across the country.
In the last year, immigration issues have returned to the forefront, since Arizona passed a controversial immigration enforcement law in April. Gov. Scott Walker originally said he had concerns over the law, but then changed his position and said he would consider a similar law in Wisconsin.
