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No changes in immigrant procedures, local police say Date published: 8/6/2010
Local police say they don't plan to change their procedures in the wake of an attorney general's opinion that says they're authorized to question the immigration status of those they stop or arrest.
In a legal opinion issued late last week, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said police have the authority to ask about the citizenship of anyone they arrest or stop for a violation. It has been compared to Arizona's controversial new law. Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to police chiefs and sheriffs around the state, asking them to ignore Cuccinelli's opinion. The ACLU said his opinion was "legally faulty." Law enforcement offices in the Fredericksburg area said they're well aware of Cuccinelli's opinion but that they don't plan to do things differently. Current procedures primarily involve leaving it to the Rappahannock Regional Jail to ask the citizenship question. When a person is taken to the jail, officers there ask two questions of everyone as part of a routine medical screening: Were they born in a country other than the U.S.? And are they citizens of a country other than the U.S.? If a person answers yes to either one, then the jail notifies the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency. ICE agents have the ability to check the person's immigration status in national databases. If the person is found to be here illegally, ICE puts a "detainer" on the person and, after the person has served any jail time for the local offense, ICE comes to take custody of him or her. The jail is paid $60 a day for any time between the end of the person's sentence and when ICE agents pick him or her up. That process does not produce many illegal immigrants. In an 11-month period ending July 1 of this year, 101 prisoners taken to Rappahannock from Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George counties and Fredericksburg were found to be in illegal status and held on federal detainers. Both the Fredericksburg city police and the Stafford sheriff's department said they rely on the jail to handle such issues. Fredericksburg police public information officer Natatia Bledsoe said it is "not necessary to our mission to inquire into that status." It could even be harmful, she said, if police did start routinely questioning the citizenship of people involved with potential crimes.
Date published: 8/6/2010
All of the illegal aliens in a community contribute to the problems associated (burden on the tax payers, different living standards, etc). Enforcement of the federal laws wouldn't be such an issue if Stafford Co. and Fred city adopted the same principles as Prince William and stopped giving the illegals social services, WIC and health dept services. Then we would see them leaving in droves because they couldn't survive without taxpayer assistance.
I thought that a pseudonym like citycop meant that you were a
law enforcement officer.
I didn't try to answer it because I don't know the answer.
these posts with considerable interest. Citycop has posted
some interesting information and seems to be quite
knowledgeable on the overall immigration issue. Even
though he/she ignored my question about the Fed.
Suddenly, however, he/she questions Arizona's estimate
about the number of illegal immigrants that left AZ after
the law was passed. I wonder if we could get some further
clarification regarding that issue?
Back to their country of origin or just to the neighboring community? At that rate Arizona's problem should be solved in a few weeks, huh? By the way, how did they arrive at the number 400,000? Did the illegal immigrants check out or something? Did they notify the post office of the address change and mark the "I'm here illegally" box? Or perhaps someone noticed four fewer people at a day laborer pick-up site and multiplied that by 100,000? Moving a problem is not solving a problem.
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