Deane, consul answer questions
More than 100 people attended a meeting with Prince William police Chief Charlie T. Deane and Enrique Escorza, the Mexican general consul in Washington, D.C., to have their questions answered about the police department's recently implemented illegal immigration enforcement plan.
"Community and police must embark in a partnership," Escorza read in Spanish from a prepared statement, with a printed translation provided. "… There are concerns that the fear of the lack of knowledge may nourish wrong perceptions. It is also a concern for all that situations like that may increase unintended stereotypes and attitudes that emphasize social
tensions. ... Therefore, factual information is the key to respect and be respected. That is exactly what we are looking for and that is the reason why we are here."
The informational meeting, held at the Hi Mart on U.S. 1 in Woodbridge, was one of nearly 30 Deane has held to educate the community about the policy mandated under a resolution the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed unanimously last year.
The resolution, which thrust the county into the national spotlight and led to months of heated debate, denies some county services to illegal immigrants and requires police officers to investigate the immigration status of someone arrested for minor or serious offenses when there is probable cause that they are illegal.
It also called for the department to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program—something being done through the six-member criminal alien unit that will focus on serious crimes.
During the meeting, Deane explained how the policy came to be and what it requires of the
police.
He and Escorza then fielded questions that drew the meeting from 7 p.m. past 9 p.m.
Concerns about ICE raids at two work sites in the Manassas area when 34 Latin America nationals were arrested Monday were brought up during the meeting.
Deane said the police department provided assistance during the raid but did not assist in the
investigation.
Many of the questions that came in English and Spanish were directed at how probable cause is determined.
Deane's answer that officers will rely on facts and information, which could include everything from someone's inability to speak English to providing a forged ID, frustrated some who said they felt the answer was too vague.
"He leaves a lot of questions in our heads," 30-year-old Marlin Fisher, a U.S. citizen originally from Peru, said of the chief's answer to her question about using someone's language as a means to building probable cause is equivalent to racial profiling.
Several asked what would happen to a person involved in an accident who has no driver's license.
That was one of the main concerns of Jacoba Casteneda, an illegal immigrant living in Woodbridge, who said he has no driver's license but has to be able to drive.
Casteneda, who lives with his wife and two U.S.-born children, said he worries he'll be deported and separated from his family if he's ever pulled over.
"Before, nobody was scared about police officers," he said before the start of the meeting. "Now everybody's scared."
But many proponents of the measure have argued that illegal is illegal, regardless of whether a criminal act is committed, and that failed action at the federal level has created a need for local and state government to enforce immigration law.
While Deane reiterated that each case would vary, he said a person's immigration status might be checked if there is no driver's license.
He reiterated that victims and witnesses would be protected, and immigration status of those individuals would not be checked.
But tricky situations could arise, he added, when a known criminal or gang member is the victim of a crime.
"But our commitment to you," he said, "is we will do what we can to protect victims and witnesses."
Groups wanting to schedule briefings on the policy can call 703-792-7245.
Information on the police department's illegal immigration enforcement policy is available at pwcgov.org/police.
Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.
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Reader Reactions
kgotthardt despite your magic wand solution, amnesty doesn’t work as you are proposing. It was tried in 1986, only 50% or less applied for amnesty. Of course people that are legally here deserve disease treatment and prevention. Illegals have no right to taxpayer services. Why should legal immigrants have to foot the bill for illegals? I have no respect for anyone who puts the rights of illegal immigrants over the rights of legal immigrants. You are right we need to go back to Pre Clinton days before legal immigration levels were raised to 1 million a year, far more than any other country. We definitely need to go back to a quarter of that level, the way it was when immigration laws were enforced by the Federal, state, and local governments, not this garbage going on nowadays that was increased by Bill Clinton. Illegal immigrants already have one crime on their record whether they committ another one or not. So yes most legal immigrants have committed less crimes than illegals. Every illegal automatically has committed one crime. Your generalizations that taxpayers can’t be tracked is wrong also. I can be tracked by my taxpayer record. If an individual has no license, doesn’t speak English, gives false identities or committs other crimes then generally yes he is illegal. Every illegal is a criminal, you get my point. Thanks for your illogical argument. The only thing unhelpful are racist illegal immigrant apologists and the rest of the open borders crowd. Our citizens should come first, illegals shouldn’t come at all. Chris Cummings
Chris, first, I have every bit of respect for legal citizens. I do not have respect for voluntary ignorance and hatred on the part of anyone, however. Now you will say that those driving without a license are voluntarily ignorant, yes? Well the fact is that even if they DO know the laws, they are in a lose/lose situation. They need to work to feed their families. Therefore, they need a car. Do I think driving uninsured is the right thing to do? Of course not. But this becomes a circular argument back to my belief that we should give immigrants temp. work visas so they can do this the right way while the Feds sort out this mess they’ve made by negligence.
Disease? Your BOCS wants to cut programs for disease prevention. People who are here with disease need to be treated right NOW. Will this be at a cost? Sure. But it’s more of a cost to let ANYONE run around with disease. And if you let them work and get health care, you are bringing in even MORE money while you build healthier communities. Outside of that, workers who are recognized can have better access to insurance, which cuts down on community costs.
We have already proven that mass deportation is far too expensive—-more so than flu shots. We have already proven that previous immigration laws used to allow workers get visas when they were already HERE. There’s no reason why this cannot be changed BACK to pre-Clinton to make our economy stronger.
Finally, yes, be rid of the REAL criminals. We don’t need those. But I will bet you most hard working people aren’t criminals. And I know for a fact immigrants do not WANT criminals here. Sure, workers might have their issues like all of us, but most are no more criminal than you or me.
Outside of that, you cannot determine who is a tax payer, who is not, who is legal, who is not, who is a criminal….you get my point? Stop generalizing because it’s illogical and unhelpful.
Driving without a license is Known by everyone in every country as breaking the law don’t delude yourself Kgotthardt. Even illegals who don’t have a license and are driving without insurance while being in this country illegally know that. Sheesh get some common sense and have some respect for the legal immigrants of this country, you know those who are willing to stand in line and wait for their turn. The process has always taken a long time and always should, after all do you want criminals, and diseases coming into this country unchecked? Chris Cummings
Oh, I think the citizens of PWC understands perfectly well that we stack them in our jails (but not forever as some people imply) on taxpayers costs. ICE - not wanting them??? I believe the latest raids showed different.
The Consul of Mexico has vested interest in their people: Yeah, duuhhh, since Mexico’s second income is the money illegals sent back to their homeland and therefore strenghtening their economy - absolutely correct. I don’t see why a consul has a right asking for a meeting with our police chief? If he is that concerned, why not invite all the legal citizens, too? Why wasn’t that the case? By the way: the police chief was invited, not the whole police department.
And on another note I also noticed that there was a translator on premises regarding the honest question of driving without a license.
“How can we become legitimate in your eyes so we can do the right thing?” With an interpreter on premises that shouldn’t be too hard to ask (if that was indeed the question, but I doubt it). BTW: That question shouldn’t be directed to the Chief of Police, but to their own consul since he himself handed out pamphlets.
Darn right I see this as contempt if somebody asked me about rights that are non-existent for an illegal immigrant, specifically what would be done if they are caught driving without a license. Please, do enlighten me what happens to a legal citizen if the person is caught without a license???? The police certainly wouldn’t pat my back and say: “Ok, no fault of yours - go right ahead and if you hit somebody - don’t worry. Most of the others have insurance.“ It’s a difference asking about doing the right or what happens if I am caught doing unlawful things. LOL!
I hope you all are never in an accident and have to get your car repaired. Better yet, never to loose a loved one due to somebodies stupidity of not doing the right thing.
Did you ever think the person who admits to not having a license is just
being honest and not disrespectful? Did you ever consider the person
doesn’t know what kind of reaction this admittance would provoke? Did it
ever occur to you that what they are asking is, “How can we become
legitimate in your eyes so we can do the right thing?“ Or is honesty so
outdated that we view it with suspicion and contempt?
My understanding is that the Mexican Consul has a vested interest in protecting their people. Hence, they WOULD want to and have every right to attend a community meeting, one of many which have been the standard for implementing this “resolution.“
Furthermore, if anyone has overstepped his bounds, it has been Corey Stewart is assuming what is a Federal role in government: immigration enforcement. Because of the resolution, the Chief and the police department have been backed into a corner. They are mandated to carry out the orders of the BOCS but are now getting criticized for doing so! Stewart and his cronies are creating an international “incident” which needs to be stopped! What’s next? Will the BOCS declare war on Mexico, for goodness sakes?
There is a mind set with the illegals, which is general disrespect for the laws. They prove this by sneaking into the Country breaking the law and they continue with their disrespect by driving without a license as proved in this news article. They cannot have insurance because they have no license. Then since they are illegal they steal someone’s Social Security number or more likely they work ‘under the table’, getting paid cash and of course NOT paying taxes.
Do they buy the County sticker and pay related tax, of course not, their vehicles are often registered out of State. Their life revolves around breaking laws, every day.
oneeye…..that IS the point….i think eveyone knows that they are ILLEGAL….what to do about them? duh…ICE dont want them…...so we stack hem in our jails for ever? THATis the problem ......that is what you folks dont seem to understand…..
I could understand if county citizens were disappointed and angry with Chief Deane’s performance in this matter.
Certainly, we should expect the Chief to have known better—or does he regularly entertain and negotiate with official representatives of foreign governments? And even when it was called to the Chief’s attention that he was probably overstepping the boundaries of his authority, he still decided to press on with the meeting anyway.
The fact is, the Mexican Consul has no right to ask why or how local county officials enforce American laws—and the Chief has no right or responsibility to entertain him—at least not without the sanction and support of the State Department.
Further, if the Mexican Consul felt that he really must say something to Hispanic community leaders in PWC, he could have explained how could assist Mexican citizens who entered the country illegally and/or overstayed their visas to return to Mexico. That is, if we can presume that the Consul does not want Mexican citizens to violate American laws, then helping us enforce these laws is the Consul’s only real and legitimate interest in this matter.
What’s more—Chief Deane seems to have made himself a willing participant to an event where one illegal alien after another blatantly paraded their disregard for our laws in front of the Chief—and pretty much dared him to take action. Time and again, they asked the Chief whether he would ever enforce the laws—on immigration and border control, human trafficking, driver’s licenses, auto registration and insurance, housing occupancy standards, etc.—and time and again, he refused to commit to doing so.
And then to add even more insult to injury—the Chief appears to have disassociated and disavowed the county police force from having any responsibility for last week’s raid on the cement factory in Manassas—and placed the “blame” squarely on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. It was almost like he was offering an apology for allowing ICE to detain 34 illegal aliens.
All in all, it appears that Chief Deane continues to do a real disservice to the citizens of Prince William County by either impeding or reversing most of the progress that other county officials have made thus far in trying to address and resolve this most important issue of how should we deal with the thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens and other criminals who continue to run wild in Prince William County.
The most sensible approach is for each jurisdiction to enforce immigration law and then illegals would have no recourse but to go home. We see the positive aspects of dropping ESOL enrollment and some illegals pulling their children out of school, as well as big dropoffs in business at businesses that cater to illegals. Win win situation. Chris Cummings.
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