The federal government is going to force the state of Massachusetts to participate in the Secure Communities program. The Secure Communities program is a controversial program that tracks the names and fingerprints of any arrested person through federal criminal and immigration databases to check their citizenship status. Massachusetts Governor Patrick Deval had sent a letter to USCIS on June 3 stating the state would not participate in the program, because only one in four people deported had been convicted of a serious crime.

Governor Deval’s rejection of Secure Communities follows in the footsteps of New York and Illinois, who had also chosen not to participate in the program. However, according to a USCIS representative, Deval’s rejection of the program will do little to delay the implementation of Secure Communities in Massachusetts.