Va. Seeks New Role Against Illegals
Police to Enforce Immigration Law
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page A01
The federal government will soon grant a group of Virginia State Police officers the power to enforce immigration law, making the state the third in the country to adopt the practice since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, local officials said.
The tentative agreement between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Virginia State Police, permissible under a 1996 law, is part of a movement across the country to grant local law enforcement officials more authority to detain illegal immigrants.
Proponents say the expanded powers will give police more tools to combat terrorism, gang violence and other crimes. But immigrant advocates counter that the practice could lead to ethnic profiling. And some police officials, including D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, are openly opposed to the idea and say it could discourage immigrants from reporting crimes.
The debate illustrates the complexity of improving security in a country that is home to an estimated 8 million or more illegal immigrants. Three of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were part of that underground population, but so are millions of workers and families in communities across America. Homeland Security, which enforces immigration laws, acknowledges that it does not have enough agents to track down all those undocumented immigrants.
Virginia officials decided to seek extra immigration powers for some state police officers after participating in local and federal task forces on terrorism and gang violence.
"We had this recurring discussion about our inability at some times to deal with illegal immigrants when we were involved in other types of investigations," said Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia's state police. While the police had worked with federal immigration authorities over the years, he said, "their resources are limited as well. So you don't always have them available to you."
Until recently, local and state police could not make arrests on civil immigration violations, although they could detain immigrants for criminal offenses and sometimes helped federal immigration authorities with transportation or security.
But a provision of a 1996 law allows federal authorities to "deputize" local or state police to enforce immigration law. Flaherty said he and other officials discovered that two other states -- Florida and Alabama -- had sent dozens of state police officers to be trained in immigration enforcement under the federal program since the Sept. 11 attacks. Virginia then contacted Homeland Security to do the same.
Michael J. Garcia, who oversees immigration enforcement for Homeland Security, said federal authorities were not urging state police to receive the training but were happy to provide it if asked. So far, he said, the program has worked well.
"If you look at our resources, we are limited. It's been, I think, helpful to have additional people out there who are skilled in it and who can do the enforcement" of immigration law, he said. "Obviously, we watch to see that's being done appropriately."
Under the agreement being negotiated, about 50 Virginia state police officers would be able to enforce federal immigration law in addition to their other responsibilities, Flaherty said. The officers would be stationed throughout the state, with one attached to each of the 24 drug task forces in Virginia, he said. They would be under the supervision of federal authorities when carrying out immigration enforcement.
Flaherty said the officers, who may begin training as early as next month, would use their immigration authority only in special cases. "We're not going to plan any sweeps of illegal immigrants and whatnot. We just want this tool to use in other cases," he said.
In addition to participating in the Homeland Security program, Virginia recently passed a law that would permit state and local police to arrest immigrants who were back in the country after having been convicted of felonies and deported.
The sponsor of the House measure, Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), said that fighting terrorism was "the original motivation" for introducing the legislation but that it might ultimately be more useful in combating gang violence.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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