The Invaders are getting very, very uncomfortable:

Immigration training to begin in January in Prince William

Prince William County Police Chief Charlie Deane is requiring his staff to undergo eight hours of training on the county's illegal immigration policy. Nov 10, 2007 3:00 AM (16 hrs ago) by Dan Genz, The Examiner
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Every Prince William County police officer will receive eight hours of training on the county's illegal immigration policy in January and February, before the program will take effect next year.

"I am mandating we are training all officers and certain staff before the policy is implemented," longtime Police Chief Charlie Deane told The Examiner Thursday.

The mandatory sessions focusing on how and when to check someone's U.S. residency status will be critical to the effectiveness of the new policy, officials said. The comprehensive course will ensure officers enforce the so-called crackdown fairly and uniformly, Deane said.

The immigration policy is already the subject of a civil rights lawsuit filed by more than 20 residents in October, and several critics said Friday that a day of training won't satisfy their concern about discrimination. "Eight hours is not sufficient," said Carlos Labiosa, vice chairman of the county's human rights commission, who is concerned about younger officers acting without enough guidance from superiors.

"It seems as though this is being thrown together," added immigrant advocate John Steinbach of Woodbridge Workers Committee. "When you consider there is no other program like this in the United States, the idea that eight hours is going to do it makes me very, very uncomfortable."

But a universal eight-hour training program is precisely the kind of effort departments employ when adopting a new policy, said Dana Schrad, the executive director of the Virginia Association of Police Chiefs.

"When you have every officer being trained on the same standard operating procedures, not just officers on the street, citizens know the program will be enforced consistently," Schrad said, adding that Prince William County has a strong reputation for its training programs.

Taking the time to educate each officer on the particulars, with a full day of training exercises, will help make the policy last, illegal immigration critic Greg Letiecq of Help Save Manassas said.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors last month unanimously approved the plan to check the legal status of traffic violators and misdemeanor offenders who are suspected illegal immigrants.

The classes likely will include videos, lectures and role-playing lessons to help officers understand what constitutes "probable cause" that someone is an illegal immigrant and how to conduct the checks, Deane said.

The preliminary training schedule dictates that the immigration program will not begin until late February at the earliest.
http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=5082
http://www.examiner.com/a-1040444~Immig ... hington_DC