2009 News

March 10, 2009

Commissioners Highlight Corrections Departments Partnership with ICE
New System Identifies Illegal Alien Offenders

A press conference was held on March 9 at the Bucks County Community Corrections Center to demonstrate Bucks County’s commitment to enhancing law enforcement interoperability through participation in Secure Communities.

This program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will electronically check the immigration history of every individual booked into detention facilities in Bucks County.  The new process will simultaneously check the detainee's fingerprints, scanned digitally, against the full DHS database.  ICE will automatically be notified when non-U.S. citizens are in custody. Bucks County operates three systems, one in each of their corrections facilities.

Charles H. Martin, chairman of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners said, "Information sharing between agencies is critical to public safety efforts, and we're proud to launch this protective measure in Bucks County." 

Also attending were Commissioner James Cawley, Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry, Bucks County Commissioner Chairman Charles Martin, Bucks County Corrections Director Harris Gubernick, Chief Operating Officer David Sanko, ICE Field Director Thomas Decker, ICE Public Affairs Officer Mark Medvesky, Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo, and Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harren.

For more information, please see the News Release "Bucks One of Only Two PA Counties to Partner with Dept of Homeland Security to Better Identify Criminal Aliens."