Thread: Immigration Crackdown Challenge Tossed

Dec 1, 12:24 AM EST

Immigration Crackdown Challenge Tossed

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday that challenged a suburban Washington county's recent effort to clamp down on illegal immigrants, one of the toughest such crackdowns in the country.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris said the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge measures passed earlier this year by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.

One of resolution requires police to check the immigration status of people they detain if they have reason to suspect the person is an illegal immigrant. A second seeks to deny numerous county services to illegal immigrants, including business licenses, drug counseling, housing assistance and some services for the elderly.

County attorneys successfully argued that the plaintiffs could not show they had suffered from the measures, which have not yet been fully implemented.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, a leading supporter of the crackdown, said he believes the county's plan may be replicated across the country now that it has withstood a legal challenge.

"Some of the best litigators in the country came up with the best arguments they could come up with ... and at the end of the day it was tossed out by a judge," Stewart said.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund sued the county on behalf of a group including legal and illegal immigrants and the Woodbridge Workers Committee, an organization of day laborers in Prince William County. As a whole, they argued that they would suffer racial discrimination from police who would suspect them of being illegal immigrants because they are Hispanic.

They also argued that Hispanic families are already suffering real harm, including the fear that parents who are illegal and children who are U.S. citizens born in this country will be split up.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Christina Sarchio said she is considering an appeal. Another option would be to refile the lawsuit with different plaintiffs who have been detained by police in connection with the new policy, she said.

Considered part of metropolitan Washington, Prince William County has seen its Hispanic population more than double since 2000, to nearly 70,000, according to Census Bureau estimates.

County officials appropriated $900,000 earlier this year to implement the police policies, and Stewart said he hopes to have the police program in place with trained officers by February.

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