A new Amnesty International report criticizes the U.S. government for its treatment of the Hispanic and indegenious communities living along the border, according to gantdaily.com. The report urged the Homeland Security Department to suspend parts of its border enforcement program until the agency's Inspector General can investigate and make recommendations for improvements.
The Homeland Security Department issued a statement denying allegations of human rights abuses.
"Amnesty International's report is based almost entirely on either outdated information or anonymous ancedotes that can be neither investigated nor resolved," the statement said. "Moreover, the report does not offer thoughtful, actionable recommendations for improvement but instead calls for the wholesale suspension of immigration enforcement programs nationwide."
The Amnesty International report claims that Latinos and those that appear to be of Latino origin are disproportionately affected by immigration enforcement measures.
Homeland Security Department officials say the only program that even comes close to the racial profiling alleged by Amnesty International is the Secure Communities Initiative.
The Secure Communities program requires that the fingerprints of anyone who gets arrested are checked against the federal immigration and FBI criminal records. A match between the records could indicate the person arrested is an illegal alien who should be deported.
Homeland Security Department officials say ethnic discrimination is not the purpose of the Secure Communities Initiative. Instead, the program reduces "the risk of discrimination or racial profiling because the program applies to all who are arrested and booked for crime, including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents," a Homeland Security Department statement said.
Along with the Homeland Security Department, a denial came from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
"The State of Texas does not have immigration laws. However, DPS officers arrest criminal aliens, regardless of country of origin, when they violate state laws," spokesman Tom Vinger said in a statement.
NumbersUSA President Roy Beck praises the Obama Administration for denouncing the Amnesty International report.
"It is gratifying to see the Obama Administration stand up against the too-prevalent nonsense that enforcing immigration laws generally is a violation of human rights," NumbersUSA President Roy Beck said. "We stand behind the Administration and most of the pro-enforcement community in supporting continuing work to ensure that illegal aliens are treated humanely during the arrest, detention and deportation processes. We regret that the Obama Administration at times feeds the perception that immigration enforcement is a bad thing, such as when it argues against various state immigration enforcement laws."
Read the full story at gantdaily.com.
Updated: Fri, Mar 30th 2012 @ 2:31pm EDT