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ATLANTA (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities have started sharing biometric information with authorities in two additional Georgia counties to help identify criminal immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, began sharing the information with Hall and Whitfield counties Wednesday.

ICE says it is part of an initiative, called Secure Communities, which is already in effect in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Muscogee counties.

The program allows arrestee fingerprint information to be checked against FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records kept by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously fingerprints were just checked against the Department of Justice biometric system kept by the FBI.

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