The following statement can be attributed to Héctor Figueroa, Secretary Treasurer of 32BJ SEIU:

“The Department of Homeland Security report fails to address key issues affecting the implementation of Secure Communities and ignores it’s central flaw, which is that Bush-era cowboy justice on steroids is not the way to fix our broken immigration system,” said Hector Figueroa, 32BJ SEIU Secretary-Treasurer. “Undocumented immigrants are workers and taxpayers, not criminals. They live in our communities and contribute to our economy. Our country shouldn’t stand for such enforcement-only measures that push undocumented workers into the shadows while distracting police officers from real threats to our communities.”

“As Cardozo School of Law found, the vast majority of people deported because of Secure Communities — 79 percent — were either noncriminals or picked up for low-level offenses, like traffic offenses. Rather than focusing on dangerous criminals, gang members or smugglers, Secure Communities is mostly deporting hard-working people.”

With more than 120,000 members in eight states and Washington, D.C., 32BJ SEIU is one of the largest unions representing immigrant workers in the country.