Police chief, Mexican consul to discuss immigration policy

Prince William's police chief and the Mexican consul are teaming up tonight to host an informational meet-ing on the county's 25-day old illegal immigrant crackdown.

Chief Charlie T. Deane is going to talk in an attempt to dispel "misinformation" in the community, said 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn, police spokeswoman.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Hi Mart, 13412 Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge.

It comes four days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 34 men on immigration charges at a Ma-nassas-area concrete company. It's also 25 days after the county adopted federal authority to arrest someone who is without proof that they are in the U.S. legally.

"There's a lot of people in the middle and there are groups who are on the polar opposites on this issue and there's a lot of misinformation," Chinn said on Wednesday. "And we want people to under-stand this. It's very complex. It's not easy."

Although police say Monday's ICE raid is unrelated to the first weeks of the county's immigration crackdown, one immigrant rights group said fear is sweeping the Latino community.

Nancy Lyall is a member of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, a group that opposed Prince William County's illegal immigrant crackdown.

"The community doesn't necessarily separate ICE and the police department at this point," she said. "But every time people turn around and see someone getting picked up, it's a blue uniform doing it. How do you tell people it's really OK to talk to folks if this is what they're seeing every day?"

She said she's worried when she hears stories from people who say they had to provide proof of citizenship when they were passengers in cars.

"A lot of concerns they get are about passengers in vehicles, but it depends on what they find in the car," Chinn said. "The best thing we can do is tell you our focus is on the criminal illegal alien."

Still, Lyall said hundreds of people have felt the impact, including citizen children of parents who are not in the country legally.

"These are families when often the man is the primary breadwinner and the wife and the children are left here without means," Lyall said of some of the 34 men arrested earlier this week.

She said children of these men go to school in fear as their mothers cannot contact the men who are being trans-ported to jails in other time zones on their way to deportation.

"It's these very personal examples when you look at these policies -- this woman cannot provide for her child now," she said.

Chinn said the county did not actively participate in the ICE raid, although it did provide uniformed officers at the scene.

"ICE does this all over the country," Chinn said. "It just happened to be in Prince Wil-liam."

Staff writer Lillian Kafka can be reached at 703-878-8065.