Rule Of Law Resolution Update Tomorrow
By Greg L | 2 June 2008 | Illegal Aliens, Prince William County | 7 Comments
Tomorrow the Prince William Board of County Supervisors will get an update from the Police Department at the 2:00PM session about how they’re implementing the enforcement provisions of the Rule of Law Resolution, as well as an explanation of how the General Order that dictates what officers are expected to do will be modified. This revision of the General Order should finally clarify to some who were confused by the language in the last modification of the Rule of Law Resolution that the crackdown on illegal aliens in Prince William County is continuing, and the statistics I expect Chief Deane will provide should demonstrate that Prince William County is not backing down.
County staff and several supervisors simply don’t want to be discussing this issue any longer. Because citizen interest in the county’s approach to illegal immigration results in a huge number of citizens contacting their elected officials and coming to board meetings, discussion of this issue ends up demanding a lot of time and staff effort. Some who actually believe in the obscure notion that government works best when citizens are more intimately involved in policy development and implementation welcome this citizen interest. There are some however, who either because they think there are issues of more importance to them, or who don’t care for the additional workload involved in responding to citizen concerns, who desperately want this to simply go away. Opening up another battle on this issue, which is exactly what would happen if citizens who overwhelmingly support the county’s crackdown felt that their concerns were getting ignored, isn’t going to make this go away, but light the electorate on fire all over again.
As a result, what we’re going to see tomorrow is a significant increase in the number of suspected illegal aliens who have their immigration status checked by the police because the probable cause standard is removed for those suspects who are arrested. The net effect of leaving immigration checks to the discretion of a police officer for those not arrested, as federal law effectively requires, really won’t result in much change from previous policy which “required” these checks be done, but only when probable cause was present. The first month’s enforcement statistics demonstrate pretty clearly that this probable cause hurdle resulted in only about fifty suspected illegal aliens having their status checked out of the thousands of consensual encounters police had with the public. Those immigration status checks for individuals not detained will continue, and the risk for illegal aliens that their unlawful status will be detected and they will be held to account will continue unabated.
The “devil”, as they say, will be in the details of Chief Deane’s revision of the General Order. If Deane really wants to open up a whole new can of worms, he can make the public think that the Police Department will be backing down on their enforcement efforts. Since that’s clearly not what Deane wants to have happen, I’m pretty confident we’re going to see instead a renewed commitment on the part of county agencies to following through with the Rule of Law Resolution, along with some quietly muttered prayers that those pesky citizens stop bothering the Board of Supervisors.
If they really hope for that to happen, however, they’re going to have to do something about these day laborer sites in the county.
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Looks like Deane finally got the message from the voice of the citizens of PWC, as reflected by the BOCS:
“In a Friday morning impromptu meeting with members of the press, Deane clarified further: Under this new policy, officers check immigration status at the stage of “physical custodial arrest,” when the handcuffs are used, he said.”
“In the meantime, police will continue to press for immigration status of suspects “based on circumstances,” Deane said, adding that those circumstances did not necessarily need to include arrests.
“We still retain the ability to check immigration status prior to arrest,” he said.”
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/prince_william_police_chief_supervisors_to_discuss_immigration_policy/16428/
Looks like a satisfactory interpretation to me, and I was a skeptic that it would be enforce before.
Could someone again supply the phone numbers and email addresses of the BOS, just in case they need a little reminding about the will of the citizens of PWC.
Corey A. Stewart- Office Phone: 703-792-4640
cstewart@pwcgov.org
Wally Covington- Office Phone: (703) 792-6190
wcovington@pwcgov.org
Martin E. Nohe- Office Phone: 703-792-4620
mnohe@pwcgov.org
Maureen S. Caddigan- Office Phone: 703-792-4645
mcaddigan@pwcgov.org
John T. Stirrup, Jr.- Office Phone: (703) 792-6195
gainesville@pwcgov.org
John D. Jenkins- Office Phone: 703-792-4668
jjenkins@pwcgov.org
Michael C. May- Office Phone: 703-792-4643
mcmay@pwcgov.org
Frank J. Principi- Office Phone: 703-792-4646
FPrincipi@pwcgov.org
A Reader said on 2 Jun 2008 at 7:24 pm:
Could someone again supply the phone numbers and email addresses of the BOS, just in case they need a little reminding about the will of the citizens of PWC.
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A Reader, i’ve always found Supervisor Stirrup and Chairman Stewart to be pretty responsive to e-mail. have never e-mail May, even though he is my supervisor.
At the State Convention, a very distinguished man from McLean VA went out of his way to meet Chairman Stewart. I watched and listened as he offered high praises to the Chairman for the great work he has done to correct the illegal alien problem in PW. Corey humbley apologized for sending our illegal’s to Fairfax, and the man was equally gracious in his acknowledgement of that fact.
One day, Chairman Stewart will be Governor, because the people of PW and across the state recognize the progress that has been made here.
It is very obvious that those who are still trying to spoil it, are part of the problem, and not part of the solution.
I wish we were there to help, but you are all doing a great job of stayin g on top of this.
I am pretty upset that the loiterers at the 7-11’s etc are not being picked up as the public nuisances that they are.
I guess one step at a time.
USMCWife:
The loiterers are not being picked up because they are not really at the 7-11. They congregate at a vacant commercial building’s property next to it. The police must have a complaint from the owner (or someone with a legal interest in the property) prior to enforcing any trespassing law.
The police could, if they really wanted to, enforce certain traffic regulations when vehicles stop on the public right of way to converse with and pick up the loiterers. This would be the appropriate way for the community to deal with this nonsense.
A group of citizens could also file a nuisance suit against the owner to force the owner to abate the nuisance. I would not support such an action because it’s an implicit approval of the police department’s abdication of responsibility and the County Government’s (read Executive’s) failure to provide for public safety.