From the Washington Post July 18, 2010
The largest immigrant detention center in the mid-Atlantic will soon open in Prince Edward County, an effort to accommodate Virginia’s unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal immigrants picked up on criminal charges.
The $21 million, privately run center will house up to 584 immigrant detainees when it opens its doors. Over the next year, it might grow to hold 1,000 prisoners, most of them snagged by the federal government’s growing Secure Communities program, which aims to find and deport criminal illegal immigrants.
Last month, Virginia became the second state, after Delaware, to implement the program statewide, requiring jails and prisons to screen prisoners by immigration status and check their fingerprints against the country’s immigration database.
With three months left in the fiscal year, the number of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions detained in Virginia and the District has increased by 50 percent from last year’s total, to 2,414. Those numbers are expected to increase now that the program is being implemented statewide.
The new facility “is mostly here to address the impact of Secure Communities,” said Robert Helwig, assistant director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We do anticipate a surge in detainees.”
The immigration debate has grown increasingly polarized, and the Secure Communities program has become a symbol of that division. John T. Morton, head of ICE, calls it the agency’s attempt to “secure the nation and protect public safety.” But many immigrant advocates, including Enid Gonzalez, a lawyer at CASA of Maryland, say the program “claims to keep violent criminals off the streets, but instead it’s just incarcerating innocent busboys.”
There’s one point on which experts across the spectrum agree: Without additional detention space, the program cannot function. ICE has detained fewer than one-quarter of the immigrants identified by Secure Communities, a range of suspected criminals facing charges as varied as misdemeanors and murder.
“The Obama administration can’t expect to increase enforcement measures without increasing detention capacity,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies
.
Prince Edward County is sure to appreciate the 300 jobs that will come to the county. It only makes sense that those states using the Secure Communities program will need a place to house criminal illegal immigrants rather than putting them in already overcrowded local detention centers. If we want to take violent criminals off the street, we must be able to detain them rather than have our criminal justice system merely serve as a revolving door.
If Virginia has implemented the Secure Communities program, how does it differ from our 287g program? Do we use both? Secure Communities seems to have tiptoed in without a great deal of notice. Contributors, what do you know about Virginia implementing this program?
From the June 21, 2010 Washington Post: (background)
Immigration status check in Va. arrests
A new system that lets local law enforcement check fingerprints of people who are arrested against immigration records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security is now in use in every county in Virginia, according to a joint release by the Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Previously, authorities could check fingerprints against the FBI’s criminal history database. But the new “Secure Communities” program lets them check DHS records and automatically alerts ICE to those with immigration violations. According to a release, ICE will prioritize enforcement for those who are convicted of major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.
Counting Virginia’s participation, the program is now available in 336 jurisdictions in 22 states and will be available nationally by 2013.
“This information sharing enables criminal aliens to be identified at the time they are booked in a jail anywhere in Virginia, and those convicted of serious crimes can be prioritized for deportation after serving their sentences,” Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) said in a statement.
So instead of federal tax dollars going to preventing illegal immigration the state’s tax dollars are going to now have to pay to house and feed these criminals that shouldn’t even be in this country. Meanwhile our schools suffer from lack of funds coupled with having to support the children of illegals along with free lunches. It just keeps getting better doesn’t it. People complain about Arizona law, and I just have to wonder why with facts like these pouring in. Face it, this nation is going to pay one way or another because of illegal immigration. The question is which method makes it safer for our children? You decide.
Tell me how sb 1070 is going to fix illegal immigration? I have been asking for 2 months.
I believe this is a private facility so all localities in essence would be renting a space…I think that is how it works.
I would think you would like this initiative, SA. The state is cracking down on illegal immigration by enacting the Secure Communities Program, illegal immigrants who have committed crimes will be detained and turned over to ICE.
Isn’t this what you want? If it isn’t, then please tell me what it is you want.
Sounds to me like the Feds and the State of VA are taking steps to deal with the illegal immigration problem, contrary to popular beliefs that spout otherwise. I’ve no problem with this.
Also I don’t understand the difference between Secure Communities and our own 287g program, or, for that matter, PWC’s Rule of Law resolution.
I, too, am surprised to hear SA complain and whine about this center. Law enforcement costs money.
I don’t understand it either, Starry…the diff between Secure Communities and 287g. I just know that 287g is the older program and I don’t believe they are taking new applicants.
PWC’s Immigration Resolution states that anyone who is arrested in PWC will have their status checked post arrest. If the person is an illegal immigrant, supposedly they are not released on bail and ICE is notified. There are 2 different phases of 287g. People at the jail are trained to do this. This part of it was in place in early 2007….before the first ‘Resolution’ was passed. After the ‘Resolution’ was passed, then police officers were trained for 287g. Some ( 6 I think) were trained for the criminal alien unit. I think everyone got basic training.
Anyone want to hop in here and correct my mistakes or add more to this?
It was all very confusing at the time and I believe it was confusing intentionally…so we dumb bo-hicks wouldn’t really figure it all out what we were supposedly paying millions for.
I didn’t know there was any debate at all about catching and deporting criminal illegal aliens. The only issue, I thought, was how to deal with people whose only crime was unauthorized crossing of the border and are otherwise just working and obeying the law.
I agree that protecting the border is critical and that the government has dropped the ball completely. Nonetheless, it seems President Obama, the Feds and the State are taking some steps, i.e. Secure Communities, to address one of the most threatening aspects of the illegal immigration problem.
Hmmmm, effective program producing tangible results even if not solving the entire problem, and low-key with no bombastic rhetoric aimed at scaring people. Help me think of someone who should follow this example.
hmmmmmm….first name: Captain? Last name: Sound-byte?
I never thought there was any debate over removing criminal illegal aliens either.
I am going to be real rash and say I don’t think the government totally dropped the ball. I think perhaps the desire to come to the United States created a creative people who were willing to take extreme risks despite the dangers. Our border security simply could not keep up with the desires or the creativity.
That’s some harsh land out there…a real no man’s land with miles and miles and miles of some of the harshest land a person would ever want to encounter. There is no such thing as securing a border like that. We just need to do better. We need to get better control of said border. But it will never be a totally secure border, even if we line up the military shoulder to shoulder. People with a strong desire get even more creative.
When we compare the risks taken by our collective ancestors to move to lands of better opportunity, whether to escape persecution from whatever, or just to live the dream of unfettered opportunity, is our southern border experience really that different?
I sure wouldn’t have wanted to make one of those ocean voyages back in the 1600s in the hold of some rickety ship. I got close to suicidal just touring the Constellation a number of years ago.
Moon, philosophically I agree with you one-hundred percent. Your very well-written post describes much of the history of America precisely. Mrs. NTK and I watched some of “Gangs of New York” last night. We own the DVD so early-birds that we are went to bed and will finish watching it tonight. Watch that movie and replace Irish with Hispanic and you’ve got exactly what’s going on now.
However, from a practical perspective we must get control of the border. Your description of the conditions in many parts of the world is spot-on. The world population is now nearly 7 billion people and the United Nations expects that to grow by about another 3 billion by mid-century. We have absolutely no control over this growth of world population
Surveys have shown that about half of them want to come to the United States. Even the staunchest pro-immigration advocate would have to admit that unrestricted immigration would not be feasible. This will be one of the most critical issues for the rest our lives and for our children. We will have to address it through rational debate and respect for all points of view.
I have no issue with the Commonwealth awarding a private company with the ability to house, care for and secure prisoners. Seems like a win-win for taxpayers.
Eventually we can all buy stocks in ACME Jails & Prisons, Inc. 🙂
I have no problem with that either Marin. That ACME stock is often recommended on the stock shows.
Ummm, I agree with most folks here tonight. I’m feeling a little light-headed and weak. 🙂
Oh, and Moon, off topic, but we’re expecting our second little slowpoke any day/hour/minute.
Let us know, Slowpoke, when little Slowie arrives. I am assuming you wouldn’t name a little girl slowpoke?
I asked you if he had arrived on another thread.
Agreeing with people here will make ya lightheaded. It doesn’t happen often.
Any little Slow pokes on the scene yet?