Thread: VA: Policy sought on illegal immigrants who commit crimes

Policy sought on illegal immigrants who commit crimes
July 25, 2007 12:35 am

BY CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--Sen. Ken Stolle wants the state to have a uniform policy to deal with illegal immigrants who commit crimes, but says the State Crime Commission task force studying the issue needs more information from the federal government.

The Virginia Beach Republican said Virginia police agencies need to all treat illegal immigrants the same way, instead of the current patchwork system in which some jurisdictions seek to turn illegal immigrants over to the federal authorities and others operate on something of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

"A patchwork approach to resolving this problem is not in the commonwealth's best interests. It does very little good for Virginia Beach to have one policy and Norfolk to have a completely different policy," Stolle said. "The laws in Fairfax should be the same laws that are enforced in Virginia Beach or in Grundy."

In the Fredericksburg area, there is no consensus on how to handle the arrests of illegal immigrants. In fact, most agencies do not even maintain statistics on the arrests.

The question of how to handle illegal immigration, and especially illegal immigrants who commit crimes, has been gaining attention in recent years.

Many state legislators believe the federal government is not doing enough to prevent illegal immigration in the first place, and to crack down on and deport those illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Scott Blackman, the director of the Law Enforcement Support Center of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the task force, that federal resources are limited.

Law enforcement officers can run the name of an arrested person through the ICE's databases to see if they're an illegal immigrant, but immigration officials do not have the manpower or time to retrieve or house all the illegal immigrants who commit crimes. They have to focus on the more serious crimes, Blackman said.

With that dearth of federal resources, state lawmakers want the state to step into the vacuum, but as officials told the task force yesterday, in many cases the state does not have the authority to do so.

States are not allowed to pass immigration laws that preempt federal law, or conflict with it. For example, states cannot write laws penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants, because federal law already forbids that.

That doesn't stop them from trying, though.

Thomas Cleator, senior staff attorney for the crime commission, said that as of April this year, there were 129 bills pending in 30 states related to law enforcement and illegal immigration issues.

Stolle said Virginia already has some unenforceable laws on the books, and more that were introduced in the 2007 session that would have been unenforceable under the preemption rules.

"The vast majority of bills that were introduced were preempted," Stolle said. "We have unenforceable statutes on the books now."

That's why he wants the task force to gather more information on how far the state can regulate illegal immigration without stepping on the federal government's toes. The answer he got from experts yesterday was mostly ambiguous--they didn't know.

The legislature, Stolle said, needs to know "what authority we have, what is preempted, what is not preempted" before it can act.

In the meantime, Stolle wants members of the task force to work with members of the State Compensation Board to see how much manpower and money it would take for sheriff's departments to take a more active role in reporting and detaining illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

"I can't defend to the public how somebody is committing a crime in Virginia, we know they're an illegal alien, and Virginia does nothing about it," Stolle said. "We have a responsibility to try and address that. There's a growing concern about immigration and there's a feeling the state has to do its share on immigration, and before we can make those decisions we need to get as much information as possible."

Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/ ... tml?page=2

In the Fredericksburg area, there is no consensus on how to handle the arrests of illegal immigrants. In fact, most agencies do not even maintain statistics on the arrests.

...proof that throughout this country that the crime statistics reorted being committed by illegal aliens are much lower than the actual numbers.

Scott Blackman, the director of the Law Enforcement Support Center of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the task force, that federal resources are limited.

TRANSLATION: President Bush and his administration has told me to state that we don't have adequate resources to deal with the illegal immigration problem, so we do little to nothing.

That's why he wants the task force to gather more information on how far the state can regulate illegal immigration without stepping on the federal government's toes.

It's far beyond time that the goverenments toes not only get stepped on...they need stomped on and crushed. Every state, county and municipality needs to pass laws and ordinances that address the illegal alien issue at thier own level, regardless of any concern to "offending" the federal government. Let the federal government marshall their resources to contest and block them. The more people realize the complicity of the feds, many politicians, special interest groups, businesses in the suppot of illegal immigration...the more "the people" will contest and fight this mindset and attitude.

There's a growing concern about immigration and there's a feeling the state has to do its share on immigration, and before we can make those decisions we need to get as much information as possible."

There's more than enough RELIABLE information out there. ACT ON IT!