Virginia state law enforcement officials can ask the immigration status of a person who is stopped or arrested, under a ruling by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
The advisory opinion, issued in response to a request from Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, is the latest salvo in the debate over illegal immigration that has caught fire since Arizona enacted its controversial law and the federal government subsequently sued the state.
“So long as the officers have the requisite level of suspicion to believe that a violation of the law has occurred, the officers may detain and briefly question a person they suspect has committed a federal crime,” Cuccinelli wrote in the opinion.
Prince William County passed its own law in 2007 that originally directed police officers to check the immigration status of suspects when they had reason to believe they were in the country illegally.
That law was later amended so that police officers were required to check the status of everyone arrested — but not of everyone stopped.
Prince William police are reviewing the attorney general’s opinion, said Sgt. Kim Chinn.
According to state law, the attorney general can give his advice and render official advisory opinions when requested by the governor, a member of the General Assembly or other officials.
As a practical matter, if an attorney general tells you what his or her office is or isn’t going to do, then it’s the law of the state, said Paul Rothstein, professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
But attorneys general’s opinions are entitled to deference in a court of law when a judge is interpreting a state statute, and in are no way considered “law,” according to Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a former chief deputy attorney general for the state and a pro-immigrant advocate who criticized Cuccinelli’s ruling.
Some law enforcement officials downplayed the practical effect of the legal opinion. Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said it will not change how officers enforce the law.
“Attorney[s] general’s opinions don’t carry the weight of law,” she said. “It really won’t change anything; it gives us a clarification of one official [whose] interpretation is it’s not a violation of law to ask about immigration status.”
Virginia State Police can inquire about immigration status when it’s relevant to an investigation, said spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
She said the opinion will not change how Virginia State Police do their jobs.
