Newport News police will check immigration status

Newport News officers will now seek the information even in minor cases. Some people fear that the policy will be discriminatory.

By Jennifer Latson
May 6, 2007

Newport News police officers are likely to report more people suspected of being illegal immigrants to federal authorities, under a new policy set to go on the books Monday. The policy resembles changes made last week in Virginia Beach, where officials came under fire recently for their policy of checking into immigration status only for people arrested on felony charges.

Virginia Beach officials broadened their policy to include people arrested on misdemeanor charges. The Newport News policy is expected to allow officers to check on immigration status even in minor cases, such as traffic stops, when an officer would not normally make an arrest.

Critics say the new emphasis on immigration among local law enforcement officials will only burden an overwhelmed federal system. Some people also worry that the new policies will unfairly discriminate against minority groups.

FATAL CAR CRASH

The national backlash against Virginia Beach began after a March 30 car crash in which two girls - Allison Kunhardt, 17, and Tessa Tranchant, 16 - were killed when their car was rear-ended at a stoplight. The driver of the other car, Alfredo Ramos, who was in the country illegally from Mexico, is accused of drunken driving.

Fox TV talk show host Bill O'Reilly prompted a national debate when he accused Virginia Beach officials of having a lax policy toward illegal immigrants. "This is obviously killing girls," he said during an April show.

Newport News officers hadn't had a written policy on checking immigration status and reporting illegal immigrants, but in the aftermath of the Virginia Beach controversy, Chief James Fox drafted one.

"It'll be similar to Virginia Beach, in that if you make a physical arrest, you ask the country of origin, and you look into it a little bit," Newport News police spokesman Lou Thurston said. "It might even go a little further, to say that you could act on suspicion.

"For example, if you happen to stop a car on a traffic violation, and it's a nine-passenger van with 15 people inside - and nobody speaks any English - there might be a suspicion that something's not right."

Even though an officer wouldn't normally make an arrest for something as minor as running a red light, Thurston said, the officer could still check the driver's immigration status. The policy will not allow for profiling, Thurston said - it will apply only after an officer has stopped someone.

Other local police departments have policies in place to alert U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement anytime an officer suspects that someone is an illegal immigrant. But officers say they don't always get a response from the agency.

Norfolk, Hampton and James City County police departments have had those policies in place for years. Chesapeake and Suffolk don't have written policies, but Chesapeake officials have said they are considering adopting one. Suffolk police didn't answer phone calls seeking comment last week.

"Our policy says anytime you detain someone and have suspicion they're in the country illegally, contact ICE," James City County police spokesman Mike Spearman said. "Whether they come and pick the person up is up to them. They are very busy."

ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said the agency wanted to hear every time that an officer had a doubt about someone's status. She said the agency responded to every report - more than 27,000 from Virginia police since the beginning of 2004.

During that time, ICE agents have placed 609 detainers on immigrants in Virginia, meaning the agents take someone into custody when the people finish serving any jail or prison time that they might have to serve.

"We do prioritize, of course, someone who's convicted of criminal behavior. That's what we target first and foremost," Fobbs said. "But when we encounter someone without the proper documentation, we don't just turn our backs."

WHAT THE CHANGE MEANS

Some members of Hampton Roads' growing Hispanic community fear that the changes will be a step back in cultural tolerance and that they will affect Hispanics the most.

Al Guerra is owner of a Newport News cryogenic equipment company and president of the Hampton Roads Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He said Hispanic community members had seen increasing discrimination in recent years, even before the March 30 crash.

Just more than a year ago, Virginia Beach settled a case with the U.S. Justice Department that found the hiring process for the city's Police Department to be unfair to blacks and Hispanics.

Police Chief A.M. "Jake" Jacocks asked Guerra to be on a panel to help recruit more Hispanic officers. Guerra asked to work with a Hispanic captain or lieutenant - but the department had none.

"One lonely sergeant is the highest-ranking Hispanic they had," he said.

Guerra doesn't think that the department did much to open its doors to diversity, and he worries the department's new policy on immigration will only lead to more discrimination. Local police departments are sending mixed messages, he said.

"I'm very concerned about this," said Guerra, 55, who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba - legally - when he was 10. " 'Show me your papers' doesn't exactly sound very friendly."

In Norfolk, police began an outreach program last year to bridge the language and trust barriers that keep many Hispanics from seeking help from police. But Norfolk police officers are required to report suspect immigrants to federal authorities if the people commit felonies, and officers may also report them when they're stopped for minor crimes.

Advocates fear that policies encouraging police to report illegal immigrants will only make Hispanics more wary of police, especially if they are undocumented immigrants.

"It could be a big problem," said Karen Kurilko, director of the Hampton office of the Richmond Roman Catholic Diocese's Refugee and Immigration Services. "People won't be reporting crimes that have happened to them if they're afraid of being questioned."

Virginia Beach Police Chief Jacocks has said officers will not ask crime victims or witnesses about their immigration status.

Chuck Best, an immigration attorney in Norfolk, said the new policies would clog an already-overburdened federal immigration office and might lead to civil rights violations for legal immigrants.

"It's hard to tell whether someone is an illegal immigrant," Best said. "There could be some mistakes in which a legal person is accused of being here illegally."

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