Sonoma County is the first in the Bay Area to check the immigration status of everyone booked into its county jail.

ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, says the fingerprints of arrestees will be checked against the more than 100 million prints in Department of Homeland Security database. Those flagged will be reviewed by ICE agents.

The program is titled Secure Communities critics were quick to say it pulls local law enforcement agencies closer into the federal government's immigration enforcement role. ICE and Sonoma County sheriff's officials described the new program as an added tool to get repeat immigrant offenders, included those with criminal past or wanted on warrants off the street and out of the country.

Before this ICE visited local jails about three times a week and manually checked booking records for inmates identified as foreign nationals, this should be more efficient.

An ICE spokesman said, “We'll have to make a choice on which cases we pursue,” Obviously. We want to get the worst of the worst off the street.”