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Immigration crackdown changes again
Prince William's immigration crackdown policy is undergoing more changes, though whether or not they are big changes depends on who you ask.On Tuesday, Police Chief Charlie T. Deane described the Police Department's new policy for rounding up illegal immigrants.
In essence, officers will still have the authority to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of a crime if the officer has reason to believe that the person is an illegal immigrant. The difference is that the officer will have the authority to check the suspect but will no longer be required to do so.
However, if the suspect is to be charged with a crime serious enough to warrant being arrested and taken before a magistrate, the officer will now be required to do an immigration check at that point.
If the suspect is then booked in the Adult Detention Center, jail officials will also do an immigration check.
Deane said that about half of all of the suspects who are arrested are released on bond or on their own recognizance by the magistrate and never enter the jail system. Requiring officers to check the immigration status of everyone they physically detain will ensure that those who are released by the magistrate don't slip through the system.
The policy change created some confusion on Tuesday because it was unveiled twice. First, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R) announced the new orders, stressing that the policy represents a significant shift that will result in more immigration arrests while costing less money.
“I think it's going to result in more illegal immigration checks in the county,” Stewart said, adding that it gives police a “lower standard” to use when deciding whether to check into a person's immigration status.
Stewart was short on details, however, and referred questions about specifics to Deane, who was to hold a separate press conference later in the afternoon.
At Deane's press conference, however, the answers were different.
“It's pretty much like it was before,” Deane said. “I certainly don't anticipate more arrests than we had in the past.”
Deane clarified that the only real difference is that the timing of the mandate has been changed. Before, he said, officers were required to check the status of every suspect. Now, officers are required to check the status only after they arrest suspects and take them into custody.
Essentially, before, if a person was stopped for speeding, the police officer was required to check the driver's immigration status. Now, the officer skip the immigration check if he or she has no reason to believe the driver is here illegally. However, if the driver also has a large quantity of drugs in the car, the officer would make an arrest on the drug charge and would take the driver into custody. At that point, the officer would be required to run an immigration check.
The police chief said that the standard has not been lowered, but when pushed to say whether Stewart's characterization was wrong, he said only that he would not comment on anything Stewart had said.
Deane technically works for the Board of County Supervisors and has walked a fine line over the illegal immigration issue. The board rejected his initial recommendations on illegal immigration, ordering a crackdown he had expressed reluctance about undertaking, though he has never said anything overtly critical of the board's stance. After the initial crackdown began, he returned to the board asking for cameras in police cars to help protect his officers from the inevitable racial profiling suits. Supervisors rejected that request as well.
Deane did not attend Stewart's press conference on Tuesday and appeared taken aback when the chairman's statements were quoted to him. Rather than comment, he repeated only that police officers will now be required to check immigration status “in all cases where we take someone into physical custody.”
The discretionary part of the order is “just good police work,” he said. If, for example, an officer stops a driver for speeding and the driver produces a fake ID, the officer would naturally be suspicious not just about the driver's immigration status, but also about his wanted status.
“It would be ludicrous for us not to make inquiries if we suspect people are playing games,” he said.
The new policy will take effect by the end of June, after officers can be trained on the new regulations, which Deane said shouldn't take long because they were trained extensively on the old regulations several months ago.
Deane was then asked why this new policy wasn't instituted in the first place. Instead, a policy was instituted several months ago and the entire police force was trained. A month later, the policy was changed and on-the-street immigration checks were suspended for the time being. Now, a new policy has been created and officers must be retrained for the new guidelines before the immigration checks can resume next month.
“You're asking the wrong people,” he said, referring to the fact that it is the Board of County Supervisors and not the Police Department that is creating and changing the rules.
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