I appreciate your conservatism and the fact you raised the issue of illegal immigration in your last election. Although I am represented in the General Assembly by other folks, I was rooting for you, and I congratulate on your victory.

How the program is used depends upon how the agreement is reached between I.C.E. and the participating locality. Apparently the M.O.U. between the participating locality and Homeland Security can be different from locality to locality.

I will say as I have said already, this program makes perfect sense. Yes its only a small step, (for a huge problem) but its the right step.

BTW, anonymous and Gurduloo - In many cases there is no jail sentence for being convicted for driving on a suspended license. Especially first time offenders. However in many cases jail time is handed down. It depends on the circumstances of the case and the Judge.

Greg, sorry its been a couple of weeks since I’ve had time to check out your blog. as usual the reading is fun.

Not a bad training mission, although most of the time tactical airlifts like this would have infantry in the aircraft that they would want to recover after a mission. After a couple of these drop-offs I’ll bet the nation(s) involved start negotiating, as it must really drive them nuts to have folks dropped off without warning on the tarmac like this.

I can imagine seeing this happen in a place like Trujillo, Honduras. With no tower and a dirt strip that’s crossed by a road, this would be very doable. About the only hazard would be local residents crossing the runway while the aircraft is on final, which I’ve seen. If you offloaded a gaggle of deportees it would take at least a half hour for the local military unit or police force to respond, by which time the aircraft would have been long gone.

Another angle is that the convicted individual must
be “papered up” in their country of origin - and most
countries don’t place a high priority on these bad
guys returning to them.

B. Except as provided in §§ 46.2-304 and 46.2-357, no resident or nonresident (i) whose driver’s license, learner’s permit, or privilege to drive a motor vehicle has been suspended or revoked or (ii) who has been directed not to drive by any court or by the Commissioner, or (iii) who has been forbidden, as prescribed by operation of any statute of the Commonwealth or a substantially similar ordinance of any county, city or town, to operate a motor vehicle in the Commonwealth shall thereafter drive any motor vehicle or any self-propelled machinery or equipment on any highway in the Commonwealth until the period of such suspension or revocation has terminated or the privilege has been reinstated. A clerk’s notice of suspension of license for failure to pay fines or costs given in accordance with § 46.2-395 shall be sufficient notice for the purpose of maintaining a conviction under this section. For the purposes of this section, the phrase “motor vehicle or any self-propelled machinery or equipment” shall not include mopeds.

C. A violation of subsection B is a Class 1 misdemeanor. A third or subsequent offense occurring within a 10-year period shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement in jail of 10 days. However, the court shall not be required to impose a mandatory minimum term of confinement in any case where a motor vehicle is operated in violation of this section in a situation of apparent extreme emergency which requires such operation to save life or limb.

They also more heavily moderate the comments on the stories where they still allow them.

I guess it’s because the illegal-alien appologist comments were vastly outnumbered..

Recall their “Get over It” editorial from this past summer. The editorial bascally said that if anyone was offended by the large number of foreign flags flying at the pro illegal immigration rallies, to get over it. It went on to say that only those offended by such flags were small minded etc.

Well, unless a crime of an illegal hits close to home at the MJM, I doubt the paper will have a change of opinion.

I figure he ought to know, being a PW County police officer.

If you drive on a suspended, expect jail time.

http://www.novatownhall.com/blog/graphics/espinoza_rap_sheet.pdf

Methinks if you’re a legal citizen you can pretty much expect jail time for that. But, as we know, illegal aliens are a protected class.

If a person commits a crime, is arrested and found to be a convicted felon who was already successfully deported, the police/ADC can already process him/her with the ICE folks. 287(g) doesn’t change this.

The real advantage of 287(g) to the localities is that it allows properly trained personnel to attempt to discern someone’s status without them having a prior felony arrest, conviction and deportation. Persons eligible for this course of action are usually limited to those who are eventually convicted of felonies.

The way to think about this is that with 287(g) local police can have someone deported the first time they are convicted of a felony. Without it, they can only process repeat felons who have already been convicted and deported.

As a final note, the big problem with the 287(g) program is the way it is charactarized by the media. They seem all too eager to get right to “papers please” when 287 really deals exclusively with criminals. Wether you are a friend or foe of illegal immigration, I don’t expect that you want violent criminals of any stripe wandering around.

NJH