Thread: Bill Would Require Cops To Report Illegal Aliens To Feds

Inside Today's Bulletin

Bill Would Require Cops To Report Illegal Aliens To Feds
By: Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin
08/30/2007

State Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny and Butler, has announced that she will introduce a bill in the General Assembly to require law enforcement officers in Pennsylvania to inform federal authorities if a person in their custody resides in the United States illegally.

Orie said she is crafting the legislation because she believes it necessary to address the exacerbation of crime due to a heavy inflow of illegal aliens into the U.S. The correlation, she said, has been demonstrated recently in Newark, N.J., as six shooters, two of whom lived in the U.S. illegally, executed three college students and wounded another.

Peruvian Jose Carranza, not a legal resident, committed the deed with the five others while out of jail on bail. His earlier jailing resulted from a charge of raping of a 5-year-old girl.
"What really got me thinking is what has occurred in New Jersey," the Senate majority whip told The Bulletin.
Orie said her background as a prosecutor, both on the county level and the state level, has informed her judgment that not enough has been done to ensure that illegals with criminal records are kept out of the country before they can do harm again. After talking with corrections officials who have seencriminal aliens come in and out of correctional facilities, she determined that the nexus between higher volumes of illegal aliens and crime has been neglected.

"I believe that the response shouldn't be after the fact," Orie said. "I think everybody thinks that at least the system could be more organized."

Orie says the best available estimates place the illegal alien population in Pennsylvania at roughly 150,000.
"I believe that September 11 and several recent tragedies make it clear that tracking illegal aliens in the commonwealth is necessary for both our personal and national safety," Orie said. "America is a country with people of diverse backgrounds, but we cannot protect public safety if we do not ensure that criminals are not coming through our borders."

Across the nation, talk has become more frequent among policymakers on the subject of how badly illegal aliens exacerbate America's violent crime problem. A crime commission in Virginia, for instance, recently reported that 2 percent of state prison inmates and up to 10 percent of local and state jails are illegal immigrants.
Under the Orie bill's provisions, law enforcement officers must establish the immigration status of anyone apprehended for a felony, a violent crime or a crime involving a minor. If the suspect is an illegal alien, federal immigration officials must receive notification. The bill would also make immigration status an item on the arrestee's criminal history.

While it is unknown at this point how much support Orie can get for the bill, particularly if it moves to the Democrat-run state House or to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's desk, Orie said she believes that even as opinions differ on how best to lessen illegal immigration, all policymakers want illegals who have committed crimes dealt with more efficiently. She also said that she believes she is well poised to work with Rendell if this bill gains traction.

"I know the governor's a former prosecutor, too," she said, pointing out that she worked with him on the passage of Megan's Law and Jessica's Law, two monumental pieces of law enforcement legislation addressing child abuse. "I have that rapport with him."

Proponents of larger-scale immigration have expressed skepticism to measures that increase police officers' responsibility to help enforce immigration law, but Christina DeConcini of the National Immigration Forum said measures like Orie's that target only illegals who have been arrested for crimes of an especially grievous nature might be worth considering.

"We haven't read the specifics of the bill," DeConcini said, "but in general we do not find it problematic for [targeting] people who are felons or have committed crimes of violence. We are not opposed to that."
In addition to strengthening law enforcement efforts against illegals, Orie said she supports legislation recently introduced in the state Senate to require anyone on welfare or other public benefits to provide verification of legal status.

Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us.

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm ... 6361&rfi=6

This common sense legislation should pass quickly and overwhelmingly. But in the upside down world of the illegal alien debate, you never know.