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Sheriff, police chief seeking federal help
Groups to tackle illegal immigration


Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006


Local law enforcement authorities are looking for federal help when it comes to illegal immigration enforcement.

At Sheriff H. Lee Hart’s quarterly report Wednesday night in the Brandy Station fire hall, Hart told a small crowd about a meeting he and Chief of Police Dan Boring had this week with an official from Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Hart said the meeting focused on options available to local law enforcement regarding illegal immigration control and the possibility of ICE financially contributing to the county’s proposed jail.

“What the feds can do and what we can do at the local level is a little bit different,” Hart said.

The Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 287 (g), allows the federal government to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies that would permit designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions provided they receive appropriate training.

Currently, if local law enforcement believes a suspected criminal is illegal, an officer or the commonwealth attorney’s office contacts ICE. If that suspected criminal is convicted and is in fact illegal, he or she is turned over to ICE for deportation after the sentence is served.

Hart said he plans to send two deputies to receive ICE training in January.

According to ICE spokesman Dean Boyd, ICE agents are authorized to arrest undocumented individuals. The training allows local law enforcement officers to take suspected illegal immigrants into custody only as a result of the officer’s daily duties.

Boyd explained it this way: “If a state trooper was conducting normal law enforcement duties on the highway and pulls over an individual for drunk driving, for example, and during that traffic stop determines that this person is in the country illegally, he enforces immigration law. That is what this is about.”

However, the expanded authority is not designed for local officers or state troopers to replace federal agents who conduct criminal investigations into companies that knowingly hire illegal aliens, Boyd said.

New mission for a new jail?
Agreements between federal and local agencies must come at the request of the local agency, Boyd said. But agreements could also extend to jail operations.

“We have been working with state and local authorities around the country for additional bed space,” Boyd said. “And there are agreements, intergovernmental service agreements, where we contract with state or local prison facilities to house illegal immigrants we’ve detained.”

The decision to enter into a contract with a local jail would have to come from ICE headquarters, Boyd said. Generally the agreement would entail a certain number of beds in exchange for some monetary contribution. ICE has funded 24,000 beds nationwide, but Boyd said they are not always full because the goal is to deport illegal aliens.

With an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, there isn’t room for every criminal in the country illegally. And Hart said local law enforcement can’t do much if it doesn’t have a place to put them.

The Culpeper County Jail is over capacity by 280 percent, according to Andrew Lawson, director of Criminal Justice Services. The proposed 88,000-square-foot jail would include about 204 cells, which is a significant upgrade from the current 37-cell facility.

Lawson said the proposed facility, which the Virginia Department of Corrections recommended to the General Assembly for approval earlier this month, would cost about $40 million. Traditionally, DOC pays about 25 percent of an approved plan, which means Culpeper County would be responsible for about $30 million.

If the General Assembly approves the project, more extensive designs would be submitted and, with a final DOC review, construction could begin in June 2008. The facility is scheduled to be open and operational by June 2010, if everything goes according to plan.

Since ICE needs more space and Culpeper needs a new jail, Hart is hoping an agreement could accommodate both.

“Is there any possibility to get any federal money to help build our jail?” Hart asked. “I want to pursue that. They are looking for places to detain individuals. Will they contract with us? I don’t know. But any way that I can save local tax dollars and let the federal government come in, then it helps resolve some of these issues. It can be a win-win situation.”

West Fairfax Supervisor Steve Nixon, who also attended the meeting with ICE, said if the federal government can contribute some money to the project, the county could leverage that money to getting the jail built sooner.

ICE’s strategy
With limited detention space, Boyd said, ICE prioritizes whom it deports based on the type of threat an individual might pose to the nation or the community.

ICE starts with those who pose a terrorist or national security threat or criminal threat - people who have committed serious crimes such as, murder, rape, child molestation or violent gang-related crimes.

While deportation is not the only answer to solving the nation’s illegal immigration issues, Boyd said, it is a start. He added that it is up to ICE to find those who are here illegally and remove them.

“Just like any police department, we have to prioritize,” Boyd said. “There are hundreds of speeders that go through a town, but when you’ve got limited resources, you have to focus on those who pose a threat to others.

“There are an enormous number of people here illegally. (ICE has) 15,000 employees total, so you’ve got to make calls, tough decisions when forced with that situation. Anyone who is in the country illegally can and could be taken into custody at any time.”

Reaction
The handful of people who attended the sheriff’s quarterly report were concerned that local law enforcement might not have enough resources to deal with the immigration problem.

Hart explained that the meeting with ICE and local officials was an effort to voice concerns from the local level and explore options. Boring, who attended the sheriff’s update, echoed his response to county residents.

“It really is frustrating in having to try to deal with the effects of not very good federal policy,” Boring said. “To the extent we can make it work in Culpeper, use the resources that we have, we want to do that and we are trying to do that. … We are out there doing the best we can, but this is one of those things that has sort of fallen on us.”

However, in the last six months Boring said, the federal attitude has changed for the better.

“We’ll have to see where this next election goes,” Boring said, “but right now everybody up there is attentive to this issue. And if things continue, I think we are going to get a lot of help.”

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or emitchel@starexponent.com.