The House on Monday unanimously approved a bill eliminating bail for illegal immigrants arrested for serious offenses and some misdemeanors.
The bill, which passed 98-0, aims to keep illegal immigrants detained until trial to ensure that they appear in court.
Currently, illegal immigrants who receive more than one year in jail go to prison and are deported. Illegals waiting for trial or sentenced to jail for less than one year typically are not deported.
“The federal government has dropped the ball and has not taken efforts to detain and deport,” said Del. David B. Albo, R-Springfield. “While the state does not have the authority to deport, we are going to try to do everything we can at our end to detain them so the feds can comeget them.”
The state will pay to keep illegal immigrants accused of more serious crimes, such as rape, felony drug charges or violent crimes, in jail. For misdemeanors, the state will deny bail for any crime if it has a guarantee that the federal government will deport the person.
Gov. Tim Kaine has said he supports the logic behind the bill.
“He is on record as being against using state police and local police to enforce immigration laws,” Albo said of Kaine. “But I hope that we can all agree that illegal aliens who commit crimes should be kicked out.”
Greg Letiecq, president of Save the Old Dominion, an anti-illegal immigration group, said the bill would stop illegal immigrants from escaping the court system.
“For them, if they’re dealing with a fake identity anyway, they get released on bail. What’s to say they just toss it in the garbage and get another one?” Letiecq said. “It’s cheap and easy to do.”
The bill was significantly narrowed during its time in the legislature, changing from including all crimes, felonies and misdemeanors to only more serious offenses.
Claire Guthrie-Gastanaga, legislative strategist for the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, said the seriousness of the crime should be the determining factor in denying bail, not a person’s legal status.
“If they’re a danger to the community, they should be held without bail regardless of whether they’re a citizen or noncitizen or a person that’s here without documentation,” Guthrie-Gastanaga said. “But the bill is troubling because it establishes for the first time that someone’s status as opposed to their conduct or their behavior could lead to presumption against bail.”
