Immigration officials "swamped" with calls from police

02:39 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Reported by: Patrick Terpstra
Immigration officials tell 13News they are swamped with calls from police after they've stopped illegal aliens.

ICE officials say the uproar from FOX News anchor Bill O'Reilly is at least partly responsible for the shift.

An admitted illegal immigrant, Alfredo Ramos, is charged with crashing his car into another while driving drunk, killing two Virginia Beach teenagers in March.

O'Reilly charged that Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf shoulders much of the blame because of the police department's policy stating officers shouldn't ask the immigration status of people arrested on misdemeanor charges.

He also blamed Chesapeake Judge Colon Whitehurst, who had previously fined Ramos and suspended his license for a DUI in that city.

More police departments are reporting suspected cases of illegal immigration, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

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