Menino acts to protect public safety

WE CONGRATULATE Mayor Thomas Menino for taking another look at the Secure Communities program and the damage it is doing to the relationship between Boston’s immigrant community and the police who are entrusted with protecting all of us (“Menino threatens to quit plan targeting crime by immigrants,’’ Page A1, July 11). Secure Communities allows the federal government to leverage local law enforcement resources in the apprehension and detention of undocumented immigrants. While the focus is supposed to be on criminal aliens, Secure Communities reaches non-criminal immigrants as well. Many favor Secure Communities because it results in the apprehension of undocumented immigrants of all types, but they are missing the mayor’s important point: Law enforcement needs the cooperation of the entire community to fight crime effectively, and Secure Communities ensures that an important segment will be silent. Only when all people feel safe to report crime and act as witnesses in our courts will our city become safer for everyone.