Thread: PW:Immigration rights group threatens to sue

07/17/2007
Immigration rights group threatens to sue PW
By: Tara Slate Donaldson

The war over illegal immigration in Prince William County is apparently just heating up.

Last week, supervisors began the process of seriously cracking down on illegal immigration. Several days later, legal threats started coming in.

On July 12, a New York-based group called the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund sent supervisors a letter stating that the organization will sue the county unless the new immigration resolution is rescinded.

The resolution, wrote PRLDEF President Cesar Perales, will "needlessly fuel racial divisions and ethnic profiling. Local law enforcement personnel will lose the trust of many. Police will inevitably increase the stops, interrogations, and detention of Hispanics who may appear to be 'illegal.'"

And on Tuesday, the president of Virginia's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union indicated that an ACLU suit may be forthcoming, as well.

"We suspect that this will be implemented in a way that illegally discriminates against Hispanics," said ACLU President Kent Willis, adding that if and when that happens, a lawsuit will likely follow.

The resolution

On July 10, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at keeping illegal immigrants away from the county.

The first part of the resolution instructs the police department to verify the immigration status of people who are stopped if the officer has "probable cause" to believe that the person is in the country illegally.

Police Chief Charlie T. Deane said the department will have to come up with a policy for determining probable cause, but that it is "a fairly high legal standard."

In addition, officers at the jail will now verify the immigration status of all inmates.

The second part of the resolution simply states that a work session will be held later in the year to determine which county services should be denied to illegal immigrants.

Depending on the outcome of that work session, it is possible that all patrons will have to prove that they are legal residents of the U.S. in order to use the county's parks, libraries, landfill, homeless shelters and other services.

Lawsuits

Even before the supervisors voted on the resolution, John Garcia, a representative of the PRLDEF, promised that his group would mount a legal challenge if the law takes effect.

"They follow a script," he said of anti-immigration officials. "Politicians who want to run for office want to pick on the most defenseless people; they want to pick on immigrants."

But in towns and cities around the country, these types of resolutions have been repeatedly overturned and "invariably, they're going to back down," he said. "The PRLDEF will absolutely sue in order to stop it."

During a press conference shortly after the resolution was passed, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R) said he won't cave in to threats.

"I was frankly offended that they come down to our county and try to tell us how to enforce the law," he said.

Two days later, the ACLU of Virginia urged the Prince William County Human Rights Commission to take a stand against the resolution, but stopped short of threatening a lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Willis said that no lawsuit is planned "at this time."

The ACLU is waiting, he said, to see the results of the work session and to see how the police department decides to implement immigration checks.

A lot depends on the police department's definition of "probable cause," Willis said.

If an officer detains a person for an immigration check because the suspect speaks a foreign language or looks Hispanic, a lawsuit is inevitable.

And that's a very likely scenario, he said.

"Everything about this ordinance emanates discrimination," he said, adding that the county "is headed toward legal challenges at some point in the future."

http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2 ... 6066&rfi=6

We need to get every city, town, or parish together and pass the same law at the same time and that way we could bankrupt these illegal lovers.

If we can get some fair judges to stop the discrimination hogwash we may be able to enforce our laws.

I can't print what I think of these low-life bottom feeders. They can't sue somebody for what "might" happen. What have we come to when people sue because the law is being enforced? These fascist groups run around threatening lawsuits are a blight on our country. There is a 90% chance of anyone with no driver's license and can't speak English is an illegal alien. Over 90% of foreign born, arrested in Nashville, are illegal aliens!