Brendan Doherty, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, announced his resignation March 3, a week after he spoke out in support of the federal immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities. The public resignation followed a high-profile exchange in which top law enforcement officials in Providence and Rhode Island butted heads over immigration policy.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 appointed U.S. Marshal Steven O'Donnell to replace Doherty March 7. The shake-up came after Doherty stated his support for Secure Communities Feb. 23 in response to Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare's request for the city to opt out of the program almost two weeks earlier.
Secure Communities works to identify and deport illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. The program allows local law enforcement to check fingerprints of alleged criminals against Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security records. If the fingerprints match those of a person who is undocumented, law enforcement can deport the individual. The immigration enforcement agency aims to implement the program nationwide by 2013, according to its website.
Refusal to utilize the Secure Communities' modern technology "defies logic," Doherty said in a statement on Pare's decision. The statement came as a surprise to the Chafee administration, which later asked Doherty in a private meeting to refrain from commenting publicly on Secure Communities until the governor determined his position on the program, multiple news sources reported Feb. 24.
"The Secure Communities program will create fear and mistrust between the community and law enforcement — thus undermining our community policing model and risking the public safety of our capital city," Pare wrote in a letter asking the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the program, to allow Providence to stop enforcing it. The immigration enforcement agency is a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security.
In his statement, Doherty said he had considered resigning from the position several months ago, quelling speculation that Chafee might have pushed him out.
"I would take him at his word that he's considered leaving for a while, and circumstances would suggest that his difference of opinion probably brought on his decision," said Victor Profughi, Rhode Island College professor emeritus of political science and CEO and research director of the polling firm Quest Research.
In Monday's press conference, Chafee introduced his new appointee O'Donnell as one of President Clinton's "10 top cops" in 1996.
During a conversation with O'Donnell, Chafee agreed to back Secure Communities in instances of violent crime, according to a March 7 Providence Journal article. "We want to make sure we work with the immigrant community," Chafee told the Journal.
But there is no indication that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will allow partial participation in the program, local immigration lawyer Roberto Gonzales said. So far, the agency has yet to state publicly whether communities will be permitted to opt out of the program.
"Secure Communities is a prime example of Orwellian doublespeak," said Alejo Stark '12, a member of the Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition. Stark said the program would further strain the already rocky relationship between police and the immigrant community. "When my grandfather was robbed in front of my house after driving home from work, the last thing my family thought about was calling the police," Stark said.
The group's members, in partnership with local organizations, are giving "Know Your Rights" training sessions for illegal immigrants to inform them of their rights in dealing with the police, Stark said.
Secure Communities "isn't what it's cracked up to be," Gonzales said. He added that increased racial profiling is a major issue with the program's implementation.
"Communities have been reporting more instances of police stops and arrests based on appearance and not for any other reason," Gonzales said. "They'll run fingerprints through the program after a traffic stop."
