Thread: VA: James City might crack down on illegal immigrants

dailypress.com

JCC might crack down on illegal immigrants
Officials will consider denying some county services and giving police more powers.

BY SETH FREEDLAND

247-7840

July 28, 2007

JAMES CITY

James City County could soon consider a law that would deny illegal immigrants many county services and would give local police the enforcement powers of federal immigration officers.

At the request of Supervisor Bruce Goodson, County Attorney Leo Rogers is working on a draft of such an ordinance. He expects to finish his report within the week and will present his findings to the full board in the coming weeks to determine if supervisors wish to vote on the proposal.

James City's law likely would mimic legislation recently passed in Prince William and Loudoun counties, which have drawn statewide attention for their restrictive provisions on illegal immigrants, including verifying someone's legal status before providing services.

"I don't want our tax money to be spent on people here illegally," Goodson said. "We need to make sure we're not providing services to folks who we shouldn't be."

Even though it's still unclear what Rogers will ultimately present to supervisors, civil rights groups are wary of another locality enacting what they see as potentially discriminatory legislation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia plans to monitor James City's actions, Executive Director Kent Willis said. There are services localities must give to everyone, such as emergency medical care. And there are those services that already are unlawful to provide to illegal residents, such as federal housing subsidies, Willis said. In between exists a wide gray area of government aid, he said.

"That's where the real dilemma is," Willis said. "If you're going to see if people using the public pool or library are legal, the only way to do it is to check every single person who wants to use it." And the worry there, he said, is if because of time or money constraints, a locality is forced to only check those who look like they're from another country.

If the supervisors adopt a law similar to the model being used, it would also provide funding for some James City police officers to receive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement training, which would give them some immigration law enforcement functions.

Without the training, James City police contact ICE to ask if they should detain someone who they find to be in the country illegally. With the training, county police could arrest that person on their own authority.

But Police Chief Emmett Harmon said he believed tracking down illegal immigrants to be a federal issue.

James City has had a few officers get the expensive federal training, and it wasn't a great use of the department's time, Harmon said.

Harmon also said crime committed by illegal immigrants was not a substantial problem for the county, despite a highly publicized case from February 2005 in which an illegal immigrant from El Salvador was charged with raping and killing a 16-year-old James City girl.

Groups representing immigrant rights, including the Washington-based National Council of La Raza, have responded to the Prince William and Loudoun county laws by saying localities are better served to integrate immigrants into communities than alienating them.

Illegal immigrants do pay sales and real estate taxes and are only eligible for those services that serve the public interest, such as school or library use, which makes them more likely to learn English and thus call police in an emergency, experts say.

"This comes out of frustration. We all know the immigration system is broken," said Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research at the council.

"But these county ordinances aren't effective and what's worse, they're harmful to the broader community."

Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

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Electronic fingerprint technology could help this situation. I know when I got my first driver's license I had to provide a thumbprint which was done by a highway patrol officer. That was the good old days when paper and ink was the norm. Now with computer technology a fingerprint can be done through electronic means and will be a part of a national database that can instantly be recognized (provided the computers don't go down) When a person has to prove citizenship they simply put their finger on an electronic reader that provides an instantaneous answer. I know that this will could be considered an infringement on our freedoms by many but it seems that the more people break the laws the more law abiding citizens loose their freedom. What do you think could answer this situation?

I think every citizen should have a tamper proof Social Security card with photo and fingerprint. This card could be used for all means of identification and it's a card we all have to have anyway.

What do you think about this tinybobidaho. If we use computer technology we wouldn't need to carry of even have the card...we will have our fingerprint which (hopefully) we will always have with us. Can't loose it or have it stolen! Except of course in the extreme condition that we loose that finger!