According to the Washington Post (registration req.):
The arrest of 24 Latino day laborers looking for work outside a 7-Eleven in Woodbridge was intended as a crackdown on loitering, Prince William County police say. The charge, they noted, carries only a $100 fine.But the penalty for many ended up being more severe: Eleven of the workers could not prove their identity and were transferred to federal custody. They have been put in an adult detention center in Manassas and face deportation…
Transferring illegal aliens to federal custody so officials can enforce U.S. immigration laws entrusted to them. What a novel idea! But a lawyer working for “justice” says:
“This is exactly what immigrants were afraid of — a bunch of Latinos hanging out and the police come by and pick them up and refer them” to federal immigration agents, said Tim Freilich, managing attorney of the Virginia Justice Center. “From a policy standpoint, the arrests don’t make any sense. It’s not going to solve the issue of day laborers in Woodbridge. . . . It’s just going to frighten the immigrant community.”The arrests came about three months after a new Virginia law gave state and local police the authority to arrest illegal immigrants without a warrant. The law, which targeted possible terrorists, was intended to be limited in scope and could be applied only if the immigrant had been convicted of a felony, had been ordered out of the country and was suspected of committing another crime.
Felony, schmelony. I’ll let Malkin and Sundries take it from here.
Addendum: You guys should see the feedback I’m getting from liberals! Some of these people have no home-training. Uncouth, juvenile and foul-mouthed (grown people!), they’re shaming themselves and their parents. And I shouldn’t admit this, but I will: I’m loving it! The more people are exposed to ideas other than liberal ideology, the better, even if they despise me in the process.
‘The arrests came about three months after a new Virginia law gave state and local police the authority to arrest illegal immigrants without a warrant.’
how do the police know if someone is an illegal immigrant?
Comment by actus — 10.27.04 @ 12:52 pm
Well there are so so many of them the odds of the police picking illgals out of a group is pretty high.
Comment by John C James III — 10.27.04 @ 1:02 pm
Actus,
That is a very good question. I can tell you from personal experience that trying to pin down an identity for immigrants, legal or illegal, is very difficult in the field. Most do not carry any form of ID, and often those that do have false or counterfeit ID. Many illegals, particularly those that have had a brush with the law, or committed crimes, simply get ID in a new name or don’t carry any and give a false name. Without any way to instantaneously ID someone on the spot it is impossible to identify such offenders if they aren’t personally known to the officer.
To compound the problem, many local jurisdictions require their officers to withhold any contact information from Immigration authorities (How is this possible that a local law can supercede Federal law?).
Those jurisdictions like my own, who allow us to contact the Feds are hampered by the fact that often when we contact Immigration, they refuse to respond, and simply tell us to let them go. I have had to do this, and it really sticks in my craw.
Comment by Montie — 10.27.04 @ 1:06 pm
LaShawn,
In response to your addendum:
how about putting aside some of the choice bits aside a rogues gallery? No names, just some flames, no comments allowed. Kinda like Mike Adams hate mail of the week.
I know it may seem like encouraging them, but it would still be worth a laugh. Maybe show some your resident libs that don’t think there are as many mean lefties as some of us righties do
Just my 2 sheckels.
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 10.27.04 @ 1:23 pm
RE: Addendum
Hey LB,
Ever see an apple tree in the summertime with no fruit on it? How many folks stop to throw sticks or stones at it?
But the tree with the most fruit, seems everyone’s trying to shake it, throw sticks at it to knock off its fruit! Some to partake of the fruits sweetness, others to just simply knock the fruit off .
Its Fruitless to give negative or positive feedback to a person with no ‘fruit’.
Keep on providing the fruit LaShawn
JJ
Comment by John C James III — 10.27.04 @ 1:31 pm
That’s a great comment, John. Thanks. That’s the best way to look at it. I must say that black and white liberals are united in their venom. I’m certain more than a few white liberals have been emboldened by the high-profile black liberal criticism and are writing things they never would’ve had the courage to do before.
I count it all joy!
I might do that, SCSIwuzzy. I’ve posted portions of e-mail before. I just don’t want them to feel more significant than they are.
Comment by La Shawn — 10.27.04 @ 1:38 pm
actus - It’s a pretty easy process, but it doesn’t work like the quote more or less implies.
Police don’t roam around looking for illegal immigrants. That’s not something they can do until such time as they all develop psychic powers.
They find illegal immigrants though incidents similar to the one noted in the article. They encounter a group of people and in the process of identifying them to write the paperwork they need to write (be it a ticket or a warning or a civil citation), they find that some people don’t have identifications and have no way of officially verifying who they are. So they whistle up the immigration people and turn those folks over to that authority. That can happen with a group or on an individual traffic stop.
LaShawn - Thank you for the link. You made my day.
Comment by Jimmie — 10.27.04 @ 1:56 pm
It’s so easy for people to hide behind tags like “Liberal” or “Conservative,” and it’s also easy to hide behing the tag, “Christian.”
Comment by Justin — 10.27.04 @ 3:01 pm
You’ll get no argument from me on that, Justin. I wholeheartedly agree.
Comment by La Shawn — 10.27.04 @ 3:06 pm
‘To compound the problem, many local jurisdictions require their officers to withhold any contact information from Immigration authorities (How is this possible that a local law can supercede Federal law?)’
I don’t think its federal law that local police enforce immigration laws.
Comment by actus — 10.27.04 @ 3:25 pm
La Shawn, I think it’s interesting that they now want to start upholding the law. Will the unemployed be willing to do the jobs that illegals do today? Also, I think the more people get stirred up, the more right you must be. lol
Comment by RepJ — 10.27.04 @ 3:26 pm
Jimmie:
‘So they whistle up the immigration people and turn those folks over to that authority. That can happen with a group or on an individual traffic stop.’
What gives the cops the power to turn people over to the feds before they know they are illegal? The law says they can take in illegals, but it doesn’t say they can turn over unknowns.
Comment by actus — 10.27.04 @ 3:27 pm
Actus,
In fact, we are not empowered to enforce Federal law unless a local or state officer is serving on a Federal task force. What I’m referring to are the laws that some municipalities enacted (none in this state, thank goodness) after the Patriot Act went into effect, which forbids their officers from contacting Immigration authorities with any information about any illegals they may come into contact with in the course of their duties.
To me, it is an absolute travesty that a municipality should even be allowed to have such a law stand. Of course some cities simply went the backdoor route by ordering their officers under threat of punishment not to cooperate with Immigration authorities. Either way it is designed to circumvent Federal law.
Of course, in reality it’s all rather moot, as it is impossible at least in this state (Oklahoma) to get Immigration to respond even when you catch admitted illegals in criminal acts. A couple of weeks ago, a suburban department in this area stopped a vehicle packed with a couple of dozen illegals. Some were charged with state charges, and the rest were let go per Immigration’s direction. even those held on charges were of no interest to the Feds. Quite frustrating!
Comment by Montie — 10.27.04 @ 3:40 pm
Since those arrested were hanging around waiting for work, I’m wondering if any action has been taken against those who might have employed them? It seems a bit hypocritical to me to pick on a few illegal immigrants every once in a while for the sake of form, whilst at the same time having an economy structured so that it actually relies on cheap illegal labour. (That sounds a bit extreme, I know, but according to nationalhogfarmer.com (!) “The number of illegal, unauthorized immigrant workers in the farm labor supply is hotly debated. Estimates range from 25% to over 50%. Regardless of the estimate used, the number is substantial.
Although many people associate unauthorized immigrant workers with the harvesting of perishable field crops, illegal workers can be found throughout agriculture, including pork, beef and poultry production.”
Comment by Richard Hall — 10.27.04 @ 3:47 pm
“To me, it is an absolute travesty that a municipality should even be allowed to have such a law stand”
Allowed on what grounds? Constitutionally it seems like a natural progression from federalism. And i don’t think there’s any federal law that requires cooperation. I don’t even know if such a federal law would survive the current federalism revival of kennedy / rehnquist / thomas / scalia / o’connor.
Comment by actus — 10.27.04 @ 4:37 pm
Illegal immigration again
La Shawn Barber has a post on the roundup of some illegal immigrants, more or less by chance. The especially interesting part is how much flack she’s taking for saying this:
Tranferring illegal aliens to federal custody so officials can enforce U…
Trackback by A Physicist's Perspective — 10.27.04 @ 4:56 pm
It is amazing to read all this comments from people who do not even know the system.
La Shawn gave a great answer to actus. I am an immigrant myself, a legal immigrant. I cam here from Africa 8 years ago. Most immigrants come to this country because of the opportunity that abounds in this country, most of us favor legal immigration.
There is process for those who desire to come here. The process is long and could be impossible to get a visa sometimes. When some of these people do get a visa to come here, they do not want to go back home since they are afraid they might not be able to return.
What we ought to do is find a way to make it a little easier for immigrants who want to come here to do so. We should not encourage them to break the law by allowing them come here illegaly.
It is true a lot immigrants come here to work, but some also come here for criminal intent. How would you know who is here for what unless you enforce the laws and keep track of those here?
Comment by elizabeth elliott — 10.27.04 @ 9:45 pm
Its about time they ended all illegal imagration and send them all back and its about time that dweeb president fox of mexico gave them jobs and quit allowing them to try and sneak across the border and no amnesty to them either.
Comment by firebird — 10.28.04 @ 10:16 am
In most other countries, if not all, it is THE law to carry an ID at all times. My experience in Europe is that if for some reason one has an encounter with Law Enforcement, you had better produce an ID. If you forgot it, they have the discretion to either accept your story and let you go, or to escort you home in order to produce the ID, otherwise, they can detain you until your identity is confirmed.
I wouldn’t have a problem if we did the same here. At the rate we’re collecting biometrics on aliens, it’ll be a matter of time before we can confidently start deporting aliens with no legimate form of US ID.
Comment by Andy — 10.29.04 @ 10:11 am
would like to know how one goes about filing a complaint
on calles from out state from illegals to have them deported i got a call from st louis i live out side of chicago and i did not like what was said it was a hispanich male and the place of emloyment was n st louis
number call from was 314-434 -3330 is suppose to be a nursing home
do these plases even check back ground on these ppl
i wanta kno if anyone out there knows the number that i may contack to file a complaint ty . email me plz rosendocerda@hotmail.com thanks
Comment by rosendo cerda — 11.12.04 @ 5:25 pm