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Stewart Proposes Change To Immigration Crackdown

POSTED: 5:16 pm EDT May 19, 2008
UPDATED: 6:55 pm EDT May 19, 2008


PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- Prince William County's board chairman wants to make it easier for officers to check people's immigration status, Julie Carey reported First on 4.

Officers would need only reasonable suspicion to check a person's citizenship under Corey Stewart's proposal, which will be presented to the board Tuesday.



Stewart, who is pushing the looser standard, said more checks would result from the change.

"It actually lowers the standard by which an officer may check immigration status," Stewart said. "It's going to make it easier for an officer now to check immigration status than before."

Under the original crackdown on illegal immigration proposed last summer, officers could check a person's immigration status if there was probable cause to suspect the person detained was in the country illegally.

When police said they would need costly cameras in patrol cars to protect the county from racial profiling lawsuits, the policy was watered down.

Because the county couldn't afford the cameras, the checks could only be done after suspects were arrested.

Stewart said the third version of the policy will strengthen it again.

"It also means that if you do not have a driver's license or if there's any question about your identity, there's a very high probability that an officer will check your immigration status," Stewart said.

Opponents accused Stewart of playing politics with an issue that has already driven hundreds of Latinos out of the county, adding more vacant homes to the county's foreclosure listings.

"If they continue to wordsmith this until they make sure that all people of color feel unwelcome here in the county, it's just going to cause further economic depression here in this county," said Nancy Lyall with Mexicans Without Borders.

Stewart said the change will better shield the policy from lawsuits, but individual officers could still face litigation.

"This is a very political game that Corey Stewart is playing. He wants to protect the county from lawsuits but he doesn't really care it seems if the police officers get sued," Lyall said.

The proposal will be presented to the board for the first time Tuesday, and Stewart said he is hoping for a vote right away. He said he has the seven votes needed to get it passed.

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