Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Editorial: Virginia's token immigration fight
Reporting foreign-born prisoners to the feds won't lead to many more deportations.

Virginia's lawmakers made sure no one could accuse them of standing idly by while illegal immigrants run rampant in the commonwealth. This spring, they passed a law that requires local jail officials to notify federal immigration authorities about immigrants in their custody. It offers campaign cover if little substance. Real reform still awaits federal action.

Some localities, most notably Prince William County, already work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to identify illegal immigrants who have been arrested. The joke is on them. While they spend millions participating in an ICE program, the rest of Virginia is getting pretty much the same results at little cost.

Under the new law, sheriffs must ask arrestees if they were born in the United States and if they are citizens. If the answer to both is no or if the sheriff has doubts about the answers, he sends the prisoner's name and identifying information to ICE. Federal agents check the immigration status and report back. That information ultimately goes into the criminal file.

The burden remains where it belongs -- on federal officials. Immigration law is rightfully a national issue that requires a comprehensive solution. Localities attack it at their own constitutional peril and considerable cost.

That's all well and good, but it will not get many more illegal immigrants deported. The fact remains that ICE does not have the resources to go after every illegal immigrant in the nation. It does not even have the resources to go after every one who commits a crime.

Sheriffs will hear back whether someone arrested on misdemeanor charges is in the country illegally. Unless they want to detain such prisoners at local cost, though, courts will likely let them back on the street.

This new law is just a feel-good measure. Nothing had prevented localities from reporting immigration status promptly to ICE before. Now they must, but to little end. Congress remains unwilling to adopt genuine immigration reform that satisfies the rule of law, the need for labor and principles of human dignity.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/171091

I think the story at the link debunks this theory already:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-125375.html