It's a head scratcher. Tom Maguire notes the NYT articles on an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) program called Secure Communities -- which seems remarkably like the Arizona law which the department just succeeded in getting enjoined.   

A task force recommended that Colorado institute a federal background check program called Secure Communities, which helps the authorities check an arrested person's immigration history through a government database, for possible deportation.

Now, as Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. weighs whether to use Secure Communities, already in effect in 480 jurisdictions in 27 states, immigrant rights groups have been privately pushing him to reject the program. Critics say it promotes racial profiling by the local police and would undermine trust between immigrants and law enforcement, in a state that has particularly strict immigration laws.

"Secure Communities is an overbroad dragnet that will end up destroying communities and families while driving victims and witnesses underground," said Hans Meyer, policy coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

But officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the federal agency that runs Secure Communities, says the program is shoring up a system that has allowed illegal immigrants with criminal records to escape notice.

"It allows ICE and local law enforcement agencies to know as much as possible about people in local custody without any additional costs or procedural changes by local officers," said Richard Rocha, deputy press secretary for the agency.

Here is a Secure Communities fact sheet, some fire from the left flank, more fire from the left, and earlier Times coverage.

The next step - The Times should demand that Eric Holder sue Janet Napolitano.  The basis will be something about the primacy of singing 'Kumbaya' over enforcing the law.