Police officers will have the choice to decide whether to check a suspected illegal immigrant’s residency status under revisions to Prince William County‘s illegal-immigration crackdown.
The lack of identification or faulty ID still will be used as a basis for checking the legal status of residents and suspects under the new rules, expected to start in late June. But officers will not be required to check residency status unless the suspect has been arrested for a local or state crime.
Police Chief Charlie Deane is slated to announce the revisions to the county’s high-profile immigration enforcement policy in a presentation Tuesday following weeks of preparation and speculation.
“The efforts of Prince William County in dealing with illegal immigration remain some of the most aggressive in the nation, and the Police Department will continue to implement its policy in a fair, lawful and reasonable manner,” Deane wrote in a memo to supervisors released Friday.
Supervisors are expected to review the policy, but not vote on its implementation Tuesday, said Chairman Corey Stewart, who praised the revisions.
“If there’sany question as to a person’s identity, there’s a very high probability that their immigration status will be checked,” said Stewart, a champion of the policy.
Supervisors voted unanimously in April to end the mandate on pre-arrest immigration checks due to concerns over the expense of lawsuit prevention methods, including installing video cameras in all police cruisers.
All officers will receive between one and two hours of training on implementing the new policy before it takes effect.
Illegal-immigration critics and supporters say they will need time and data to determine how the change will affect policing.
Under the previous policy, which started in March, 89 people were checked for immigration status, 41 were arrested and the remainder did not commit arrest-level violations.
TIMELINE
April 29: Supervisors removed requirement for officers to check legal status of suspected illegal immigrants prior to an arrest.
Tuesday Police Chief Charlie Deane will present a new policy giving officers discretion on whether to check in cases of false or inadequate identification
June: Officers will be trained on how to implement the new policy, including requirement to check legal status after every arrest
Late June: Officers will implement the new policy
August: The county will present a detailed data analysis of the policy’s impact
