Thread: IMMIGRATION: Enforcing U.S. laws becoming local task

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IMMIGRATION: Enforcing U.S. laws becoming local task
A few localities want their officers to be able to do federal duties


BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 1, 2006


Faced with local concerns about illegal immigration, officials in at least three Virginia communities are looking at a federal program that allows local police to enforce immigration laws.

The move concerns some people, including in immigrant communities, who say it could undermine efforts to build trust be- tween police and immigrants -- legal or not -- who might become more reluctant to assist police for fear of being deported or seeing a relative forced from the country.

The Herndon Town Council voted last week to apply for the law-enforcement training grant available through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The Culpeper County Sheriff's Office is sending two officers for training in the coming months, and a Manassas Town Council member also wants his colleagues to consider the program.

In Herndon, the move follows the ouster in the May elections of the former mayor and two council members who supported the establishment of a day-laborer center in the town. The new mayor, Stephen J. DeBenedittis, said in a statement that the program is not designed to round up illegal immigrants in random street operations. He did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Manassas City Councilman Jackson H. Miller echoed that sentiment, saying, "It's not a program where our police start going into the kitchens of our restaurants and start demanding green cards."

The efforts are being driven, in part, by local frustrations about the impact of undocumented residents on schools, social services and judicial systems. In Culpeper, Town Councilman Steve Jenkins is pushing for stricter enforcement of the local ordinance governing how many unrelated people can live under one roof. He also wants to tighten the ordinance's definition of family and is considering pushing to officially designate English as the town's primary language.

No locality in the Richmond area has asked for specific authority to enforce federal immigration laws under the homeland-security program. However, local police departments say that under some circumstances, they have authority to detain illegal immigrants until federal immigration agents can investigate.

Virginia decided against seeking authority for the State Police to directly enforce civil laws. State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty said his department initially wanted to be certified under the federal program to help in criminal investigations that involved gangs and other criminal enterprises involving illegal immigrants. "We wanted it very narrowly focused," he said

Flaherty said the administration of then-Gov. Mark R. Warner concluded that the department had sufficient power under a 2004 state law that gives law enforcement greater leeway to hold illegal immigrants if there is reasonable suspicion that they are committing a crime.

Miller, who is a Prince William County police officer, said he has spoken with constituents who are stunned that an undocumented resident who is arrested for committing a crime is not automatically deported. He said he recently arrested an illegal immigrant who shoplifted and then punched two store employees, but federal immigration officials were reluctant to get involved because it didn't involve murder, rape or robbery.

Tim Freilich, legal director of the Virginia Justice Center in Charlottesville, said such an instance points to the need for comprehensive federal immigration reform, not empowering local police to take up the slack.

"It's a terrible use of local law-enforcement resources," he said, adding that the efforts imperil years of community-policing efforts aimed at building trust with immigrants.

Jose Osegueda, chairman of the Fredericksburg-based National Organization for the Advancement of Hispanics, agrees that immigration enforcement is not a local job. "We need local police doing what their mission is. I don't think at any time the mission of police was to work on federal issues," he said.

Freilich does not contest the legality of the program but says his group will be carefully watching the implementation.

Miller acknowledges that funding is an issue. He said the federal program provides money only for training, not for implementation, including detaining petty criminals who might otherwise be released if not for their immigration status.

"Nothing worthwhile is easy. Do we have the [jail] capacity? If the political will is there, anything can be done," he said.

Culpeper County Sheriff H. Lee Hart said he would be remiss not to explore available training. He is sending two officers, one assigned to the jail and one who investigates gang activity, for the training. He says the county has documented activity by MS-13, the shorthand name for Mara Salvatrucha, a street gang with Salvadoran roots that has a widespread presence in Northern Virginia.

"I'm not saying we have a gang problem," he said. "But we have to be proactive."

Freilich said illegal immigrants are not the only people who should be concerned about local police being able to start deportation proceedings. He noted that U.S. citizens and legal residents are not required to carry proof of citizenship or legal status.

"All Virginians should start thinking about what they're going to say when a cop asks if they're legal," he said, adding that stepped-up efforts could tear apart families that include both legal and illegal residents.

Several other local and state law-enforcement and corrections agencies nationwide are participating, including in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina.

In the Charlotte, N.C., area, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph says his department has screened 1,500 possible illegal immigrants and marked 650 for deportation.

Pendergraph agreed that funding is a concern, perhaps even more so for small communities. His large department has 12 people assigned full time to the program and has received federal funding partly because the department already houses federal inmates.

He says the community has generally been supportive and that he hasn't heard from employers complaining the efforts are depleting the work force.

"The ones that we're seeing aren't working, quite frankly," Pendergraph said of undocumented residents. "Some people have a misunderstanding that we're out with a net on street corners. . . . I don't have the resources just to hunt for people who are here illegally."

Contact staff writer Kiran Krishnamurthy at kkrishnamurthy@timesdispatch.com or (540) 371-4792.
Staff writer Michael Martz contributed to this report.

"All Virginians should start thinking about what they're going to say when a cop asks if they're legal,"

Duh..seems easy to me...or is this another scare tactic..from are New World Order/North American Un-Union folks..to throw another wrench in the fight...Henny Penny the sky is falling and you Americans could be DEPORTED...oh...my..Lions and tigers and bears...Oh I get it.. this is their shoe-in for chipping people in the future! Gezzzzzz!
WHATEVER!

The move concerns some people, including in immigrant communities, who say it could undermine efforts to build trust be- tween police and immigrants -- legal or not -- who might become more reluctant to assist police for fear of being deported or seeing a relative forced from the country.

This argument, after seeing it 1000 times, is starting to get on my nerves. Perhaps once all the illegal immigrants in the country are deported, we'll no longer have to worry about the illegal immigrant and police relationship issue.