Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses police gang databases to identify illegal immigrants for deportation, according to The Marshall Project.
“Law enforcement partners provide actionable intelligence which is critical in the targeting of gangs and their membership for enforcement actions,” ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett told the Marshall Project in an email.
Although gang databases are commonly used by police departments to track criminal activity, “advocates criticize the lists for casting too wide a net and say they’re a form of racial profiling,” writes the Marshall Project’s Christie Thompson. “Individuals can be added to gang databases for wearing certain colors, hanging out in places frequented by gang members, or knowing or being related to someone in a gang. The databases are also relatively opaque: Individuals are rarely notified when they are added or given a way to fight the designation.”
Some, like 19-year-old Luis Vicente Pedrote-Salinas, are added to the database after being arrested for crimes unrelated to gangs, such as underage drinking. Although he was never convicted of a crime, Pedrote-Salinas is still listed as a suspected gang member by the Chicago Police Department and has been denied Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status because of this, and faces deportation to Mexico, which he left when he was five.
A spokesperson for ICE admitted that people can be identified as gang members simply for meeting two of the eight criteria.
“They’ll just arrest them based on an evidence-free allegation,” immigration attorney Bryan Johnson, who represents plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. “They don’t have to share that information in court. There’s no process to challenge the allegations.”
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