Prince William County is set to begin its revised crackdown on illegal immigrants next week, when police officers will begin checking the U.S. residency status of everyone arrested for violating a state or local law.
The county’s original policy, introduced in October, requires officers to check the status of crime suspects they had probable cause to believe were in the country illegally.
There are two major provisions in the new policy, which was revised in response to a resolution passed by the county Board of Supervisors in April. Starting July 1, anyone who is arrested and held in jail will have his or her immigration status checked through a federal database. But police offers will be allowed to use their own discretion to check immigration status before arrest.
Officers will continue to inform Immigration and Customs Enforcement about any suspected illegal immigrants.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart said the new policy was largely designed to legally protect county police officers.
“It’s going to protect the average officer better against charges of racial profiling,” he said. “It removes some of the dangers of racial profiling, and that’s the reason why we changed the policy.”
Mukit Hossain, president of the Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee, said there is still great potential for a civil rights lawsuit under the new policy, and that he found the stipulation that officers are allowed to check suspects’ status at their own discretion “very alarming.”
He said that the vague language of the policy could create potentially grave consequences.
“When they start to implement something as dangerous and as nebulously defined as this, there’s bound to be violations, and that’s going to come back tohaunt them in ways they’re going to regret greatly,” he said.
But Stewart said the revised plan lowers the standard for inspection to “based on reasonable suspicion, rather than probable cause.”
Officers were trained on the new policy in June, said Prince William County police Officer Erika Hernandez.
