Cuccinelli Suggests How Va. Should Deal with Illegal Immigrants

By Stephen Groves, of Virginia Statehouse News Saturday, August 14, 2010

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II put the spotlight on Virginia in the illegal immigration debate by opining that Virginia law enforcement officers should take an active role in inquiring into the status of suspected illegal immigrants.

But what a police officer should do if an illegal immigrant is found remains unclear.

“We are one of only two states to run all arrestees,” Cuccinelli said on the syndicated Laura Ingraham radio show on Tuesday. “The question will be if [federal government agents] are going to come pick them up.”

Law enforcement officers can inquire into the immigration status of anyone they stop, but this does not mean individuals will be picked up and deported by the federal government.

“They simply don’t have those resources,” said Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Cori Bassett said the agency prioritizes picking up illegal aliens with criminal convictions. The Washington, D.C. field office, which deports illegal immigrants from Washington and all of Virginia, removed 1,112 illegal aliens as of June 19 for the 2010 fiscal year. Of those, 770 had previous criminal convictions and 342 did not have a conviction.

But across Virginia, the way local law enforcement deals with illegal immigrants varies by county.

“There are jurisdictions that try to identify and notify ICE,” Schrad said. “I can’t tell you that is a standard procedure.”

Currently, Virginia uses a program called “secure communities,” which allows local law enforcement to check the immigration status of someone they arrest. Also, nine Virginia law enforcement departments partner with ICE through 287(g) agreements that train officers to check the immigration status of people they detain. All of those departments are in northern Virginia.

Governor Bob McDonnell this week wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano seeking a 287(g) agreement with the Virginia Department of State Police allowing certain Virginia troopers to perform certain functions of a federal immigration officer within the borders of the Commonwealth.

The various policies can make it unpredictable how law enforcement will deal with illegal immigrants, but they do seem to be united in one goal — to get rid of violent offenders.

Schrad said, “If they [illegal immigrants] are convicted of a violent crime, the goal is to have them deported.”

But this leaves a gray area for all other illegal immigrants.

“I want to target the criminal element of the illegal aliens,” said Rockingham County Sheriff Don Farley, whose department has a partnership agreement with ICE.

The sheriff said he does not detain people he stops for traffic violations simply because he cannot take on that burden.

“For me to detain that person on illegal status, I have to have bed space to detain them.”

In many situations, though, an illegal immigrant who is a violent offender will end up serving time in prison before they are deported. If an illegal immigrant is convicted of a crime, they will serve their sentence. The Virginia Department of Corrections reports all foreign-born inmates in the system to ICE, so the agency can investigate and deport them once their sentence is served.

The Department of Corrections does not track the number of illegal immigrants in prison, but rather the number of foreign-born inmates. Last year, that group tallied 1,337 inmates.

Each year, the prisons must apply for a federal award for housing the foreign inmates. The award is not guaranteed, but for the 2008 fiscal year, $1.9 million went to house 1,376 foreign-born offenders.

Richard Rocha, spokesperson for ICE, said the agency has officers in the prisons to investigate illegal immigrants and make sure they are transferred to ICE after they serve their sentences.