Prince William County police to check immigration status of all arrestees
Starting Tuesday, anyone arrested in Prince William County will be asked about his or her immigration status and then checked through a federal database.
That process could take a couple of minutes or last up to several depending on the complexity of the situation, said county police Chief Charlie T. Deane.
But it’s expected to help protect the county against allegations of racial profiling in the absence of installing cameras in all of the county’s police cruisers.
The county’s policy — which originally required officers to check a person’s immigration status if there was probable cause to believe he or she was in the country illegally — was revised in response to a resolution passed by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in April after deciding not to fund the $3.1 million it would cost to install cameras and monitor the footage.
“There are benefits to cameras aside from the issue of immigration,” Deane said. “But the issue of immigration and the potential for, of course this was a very high profile policy, the potential for allegations against our officers are very high, so that’s what put me over and help me make a decision to recommend cameras.
“Now that that risk has been mitigated, the urgency of getting cameras is not on the forefront for me.”
Much of the original general order remained intact.
Police retain the authority to inquire into someone’s immigration status prior to arrest; crime victims and cooperative witnesses will be protected regardless of their immigration status; and police officers will contact ICE if they believe a person is in violation of immigration laws.
The Prince William-Manassas regional jail already checks the immigration status of all incoming inmates under the Immigration and Custom Enforcement 287(g) program, so police will check the status before arrestees go before the magistrate to have bail set.
“Knowing their immigration status may be a factor that the magistrate will use in deciding whether to detain them or not,” he said.
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In car police cameras have been in existence for over twenty years. Where was Chief Deane when all of the other police jurisdictions were seeking and receiving grants for cameras in patrol cars?
Chief Deane has survived way past the five years most police chiefs stay on a police department. It is unhealthy for a police chief to remain in power for over twenty years.
Modern police departments change police chiefs every five or ten years because it helps break up the good ole boy system within a police department.
Chief Deane is no longer beholden to the
citizens of Prince William County.
So BigDog1, what is the answer to the problem? All we see here is both sides shouting down the other, with few offering solutions. As an INS professional, do you think the simple basics of the PWC Resolution is going to stop or even slow the illegal immigration population in PWC? The population is down now simply because there are no construction jobs with our current economy. When the jobs come back, the immigrants will be back in force. It all must start with a Federal commitment to border security and proper funding for ICE and other programs, or else we’re just spitting into the wind. Your thoughts?
I worked the PWC area when I was a special agent with INS. Our office only had approx. 20 agents and we covered all of D.C. and three quarters of the state of VA. One squad (about 6-8 agents) was dedicated to seeking deportable aliens that were in jail. Before you critize the federal government for not enforcing immigration laws, you should do some research. The old INS and now ICE has a massive problem with the illegal alien population. It has been that way for years. I lived in Manassas and I recall reaing a story in the local paper about how the Manassas City police were getting Spanish language training. It was one of those soft stories, about how they were reaching out to help the Hispanic community. When I saw the story my thoughts were “you fools have no idea what is coming your way.“ I clearly saw that we were under staffed to deal with the influx. I also saw all types of contractors smiling about all of the cheap labor, not to mention the service inductry. The fact of the matter is that the illegal alien problem is everyones problem. The days of blaming the problem on the federal government have passed. This situation has to be dealt with by ALL levels of government. This isn’t discrimination against Hispanics, because everyone gets checked at the jail. Heck, there are plenty of Hispanics in law enforcement, including ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol. I never saw any of them cowering in fear, when they were off duty. This “fear” stuff is nonsense that is spouted by people that benefit from illegal immigration. Cops don’t have to enforce immigration law, unless it works to get ethnic gangs out of our communities and other criminals.
The coming immigrant polices have been in the news for over a year. The news people have been reporting the pending policies for that same time and also reporting that the illegals were afraid and leaving the County.
The people supporting the illegals have claimed the housing slump and drop in prices was caused by the illegals leaving the community. So clearly by the illegal supporters own words the illegals started leaving PW County early last year.
And speaking of housing, last month six homes in my neighborhood were sold, a record for more then a year. Additionally the prices are increasing slightly.
So the new policy seems to be a very positive action from the facts and not a negative from scary opinions.
My guess CF is that Corey and Company pulled back on the funding for cameras once they realised there is little tax savings in chasing out illegals. In fact, with businesses all over the county down in sales, they may want any customer to return and spend taxable dollars to help the budget shortfall.
Good ol’ Deane. All of a sudden he doesn’t see a pressing need for cameras. Gee, they only help in protecting the physical safety and security of his officers plus aide in prosecutions.
Give them a break DuaneNoVA. They are the first group of local government officials to even want to step in to the slim pit we call illegal immigration. I give them all the support they need to clean up a mess the Feds have ignored for decades.
Wow, the backwards PWC Police may have finally gotten it right! It only took how many revisions?
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