Board chair wants Congress to question release of illegal immigrants

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- County Chairman Corey A. Stewart hopes Congress will champion his cause to compel immigration officials to report the status of criminal illegal immigrants once they leave the hands of local authorities.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors chairman said Thursday he would like Congress to sub-poena this information from Immigration & Customs Enforcement officials.

Stewart claims the county has tried multiple times to find out information regarding the status of these criminals and has been "stonewalled" by ICE.

"They [ICE officials] need to come clean and at least provide a list of who they [criminal illegal immigrants] are, what they have done and where they are," Stewart said.

Stewart is incensed that Carlos A. Martinelly Montano -- an illegal immigrant from Bolivia -- had not been deported after being arrested a second time for driving under the influence in October of 2008. Montano lost control of his vehicle Sunday and ran into a car carrying three Benedictine nuns, killing Sister Denise Mosier.

So far Stewart has reached out to Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, as well as representatives from California and Iowa. One of those representatives -- California's Brian Bilbray -- recently signed an amicus brief supporting Arizona after President Obama's administration filed a lawsuit claiming that the state's recent legislation goes against federal immigration law.

Wolf said he hasn't received anything from Stewart on this issue yet but thinks the better route for Congress would be to put political pressure on changing ICE's policy, if indeed the county is being denied status information of criminal illegal aliens arrested in Prince William County.

"Clearly, the local law enforcment ought to know," Wolf said.

Stewart called Wolf a strong proponent in the fight against illegal immigration and said there was nobody in Congress more supportive of Prince William County's controversial 2007 illegal immigration resolution.

John Gray, who will be running against Stewart in 2011, criticized the chairman for his public comments regarding the accident and its connection to illegal immigration.

In an on-line Richmond Times-Dispatch story published Thursday, Stewart was quoted as saying that the federal government has "blood on their hands" for its lack of support of ICE.

"The issue here is the drunk driver who killed an innocent, not that the drunk driver is an ille-gal," Gray stated in an e-mail Thursday.

Stewart responded to Gray's comments by stating that the tragic death of the Benedictine sister Sunday could have been prevented had the federal government done its job.

He also stated that Virginia needs to toughen its laws in general regarding drunken driving.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.