By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
RICHMOND, Va. — A state task force charged with strengthening enforcement of immigration laws offered 11 recommendations Tuesday, including building a 1,000-bed jail to house violators who currently are being ignored by law enforcement.
“Some of you will agree with some of them and some of you will disagree,” Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the State Crime Commission Illegal Immigration Task Force.
Immigration advocates told the task force that toughening immigration enforcement would have a “chilling effect” on crime victims and witnesses who may be in the country illegally.
“The answer isn’t more beds,” said Tim Freilich, legal director of the Virginia Justice Center for Farm and Immigrant Workers.
The public will have a chance to comment on the proposals at the task force’s next meeting, Oct. 16. The panel, represented by delegates, state senators and members of the law enforcement and immigrant communities, have until Oct. 5 to submit any other ideas.
The Crime Commission, the General Assembly and the governor would have to approve any of the recommendations.
Besides building a new jail, other proposals include:
Ordering local magistrates and judges to set no bail for suspected illegal immigrants.
Improving data collection systems at local jails and state prisons to prevent the release of illegal immigrants.
Creating regional anti-gang task forces that include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Developing a list of felonies and misdemeanors, including driving under the influence, that will trigger deportation proceedings if committed by a suspected illegal immigrant.
Stolle, a task force co-chairman, said that proposal stems from the double-fatal crash in March in Virginia Beach that was caused by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record. The driver, Alfredo Ramos, had prior convictions for drunken driving and being drunk in public but was released from custody.
Ramos pleaded guilty last month to two counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and is to be sentenced Nov. 5. He is facing up to 40 years in prison, then deportation.
The task force was formed as a result of that crash. On Tuesday, Freilich told the task force that the state should “rebuild and preserve the trust between the immigrant communities of Virginia and state and local law enforcement” instead of passing laws that will put more people in jail.
He called it “bad public policy” to expand state and local law enforcement powers to include immigration enforcement and recommended that sheriff’s and police officers be prohibited from inquiring about a crime suspect’s immigration status.
His suggestions received no support from the panel.
“It’s a dangerous course you are setting,” Stolle told Freilich.
Still, the idea to build a new jail, Stolle acknowledged, could be the most difficult proposal to pass .
“It raises questions such as if Virginia has the resources,” he said. “I suggest to you that we don’t have the resources to build a 1,000-bed facility.”
To solve the issue, the federal government would have to agree to pay for construction and operation of the facility through a daily rate for each inmate, according to the proposal.
The facility would house only suspected illegal immigrants. A site has not been determined.
Currently, the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, the Piedmont Regional Jail and a jail in Northern Virginia receive a per-day amount from the federal government for each immigration detainee. In 2005, the most recent year figures were available, the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth received $75 a day per federal inmate and housed more than 200 each day.
The task force backed away from recommending that police and sheriff’s departments be more proactive in enforcing immigration laws, because federal law doesn’t allow for it. Instead, the panel is recommending a resolution calling on Congress to provide more funding and staffing to ICE.
Also Tuesday, two Norfolk police officers gave a presentation on how the Police Department’s new Hispanic outreach liaison has increased trust among immigrant communities in the city.
Down the hall from the task force in the General Assembly Building, the Virginia Commission on Immigration met for the first time Tuesday. The commission is tasked with studying the effects of illegal immigration on education, health care, law enforcement and the economy.
Copyright 2007 The Virginian-Pilot