Thread: Chief explains immigration law expenses

Chief explains immigration law expenses

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By KEITH WALKER

kwalker@potomacnews.com
Saturday, September 15, 2007


Best estimates, so far, have the cost of enforcing immigration law in Prince William County coming in at about $14.2 million over five years.

On Tuesday, Prince William Police Chief Charlie T. Deane will tell the Prince William Board of County Supervisors that training police staff, extra work for police officers and farming out prisoners to other jails across the state will contribute to the cost.

In July, the board passed a resolution which directed the police department to look into having officers trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce immigration law. The resolution also directed the department to determine what would constitute probable cause for asking people about their legal status.

As a result, Deane rewrote the rule book where it pertained to illegal immigration and the department's ability to enforce immigration law under federal constraints.

If the board directs the department to have officers trained by ICE, Deane said the program should focus on criminal illegal immigrants, protect victims and witnesses and be fair and lawful in its implementation.

The department's policy would be to continue to help crime victims regardless of their legal status, Deane said.

The training would begin when ICE is ready to accept about six Prince William County police officers into its program. Deane could not say when that would be.

Deane's presentation will show that probable cause could be established if people provide false documents to police or state and national background checks show that a person is wanted for being here illegally.

Probable cause should also be established during questioning if police get the "reasonable and prudent" impression from the "totality of the circumstances" that someone is in the country illegally, Deane said.

Police currently release people on summonses to appear in court when they are charged with lesser offenses such as traffic violations.

When police determine that someone might be here illegally, under the new program they would arrest that person and keep him in jail until he goes to court on the charge. In the meantime, county police would check with ICE to determine if the detainees are candidates for deportation, Deane said.

Police cannot arrest and hold people solely on immigration charges, Deane said.

A letter from the county attorney's office to the Supervisors shows that several criteria must be met before police can detain and arrest people for illegal immigration.

Police must be reasonably sure that a person has committed or is committing a crime.

State law allows police to arrest anyone who has been convicted of a felony and returned after being deported or leaving the country.

The law also allows police to arrest people on illegal immigration charges if they confirm that ICE or any other law enforcement agency has charged the person with a crime, the letter stated.

Police cannot arrest people if ICE has not taken any action against the person.

It is also illegal for police to arrest people when ICE is taking "no more than civil action against him or her," the letter stated.

Deane's presentation, during the board's 2 p.m. session, will also show that strong public education should be part of the equation.

The presentation will show that people should be realistic in their expectations since police have limited authority, limited jail space and the inability to control border security.

Taxpayers have limited budgets, too, but they are still forced to fork over their money to support the illegals.
When do we get to say that we can't fund illegality because of limited funding?