immigration

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Bayou Bakery Sneak Peak — Eat More Drink More scores the first photos inside Courthouse’s new Bayou Bakery. The elaborately-decorated cafe/restaurant has a distinct New Orleans theme, which extends from the decor to the food. It could be open as soon as Monday, Nov. 15.

County Government Closed for Veterans Day — Most Arlington County offices will be closed on Thursday in honor of Veterans Day. More from the Sun Gazette and Arlington County.

Virginia’s Redistricting Process Demystified — The Virginia Public Access Project has a handy video guide to the upcoming redistricting process in the Commonwealth.

Immigrant Groups Continue Push — Arlington has more or less given up on trying to opt out of the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program. But the immigrant rights groups that led the charge for withdrawing from the program aren’t done fighting. They filed a Freedom of Information Act request last month for more details about the opt-out process, and plan on sharing the results with Arlington County. More from the Washington Independent.

Flickr pool photo by pderby

Arlington Declines To “Opt-Out” of ICE Database

By ARLnow.com

Arlington officials were given two options for opting out of the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program today, neither of which they liked.

Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan, Police Chief Doug Scott and Sheriff Beth Arthur met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to find out how communities can withdraw from the program, which has drawn fire from immigrant rights advocates.

The meeting followed the county board’s unanimous September vote to opt-out of Secure Communities, and statements to the press from ICE Director John Morton, saying such a withdrawal was impossible.

The meeting seemed to add weight to Morton’s assertion.

“ICE stated clearly — and with finality — that local activated communities do not have the option of withholding information from the program, although communities can opt not to learn the results of immigration queries,” Donnellan wrote in a memo to county board members following the meeting.

“ICE stated that Secure Communities is a federal information-sharing program — which links two federal fingerprint databases,” Donnellan wrote. “The program does not require state and local law enforcement to partner with ICE in enforcing federal law. State and local law enforcement do not have any role in enforcing immigration law.”

The agency gave Arlington two options for opting out of the program. The first option was to opt-out of receiving the results of ICE’s database inquiry.

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Arlington Officials to Discuss Secure Communities with ICE

By ARLnow.com

Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan and her staff will meet with officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday to discuss the county’s desire to opt-out of the Secure Communities program.

The Sun Gazette reports that the county expects to release a public statement after the meeting.

Other local jurisdictions, like Loudoun and Fauquier counties, which participate in the Secure Communities program, say it’s an effective, uncontroversial tool for removing criminal aliens, the Sun Gazette also reported today.

ICE Director: Arlington Can’t Opt Out of Secure Communities

By ARLnow.com

Arlington’s quest to opt out of the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program has hit a brick wall. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton tells the Associated Press that local governments cannot withdraw from Secure Communities, because the program is between states and the federal government.

Secure Communities checks the immigration status of those booked into local jails by comparing fingerprints sent to the FBI’s criminal database to an ICE immigration database. Because the fingerprints are first sent to the state, which then sends them to the FBI, local communities can’t opt out, Morton said.

He also dispelled the notion that Secure Communities forces local police departments to enforce immigration laws.

“No one in the Department of Corrections, no one in Arlington County, no one in the other jurisdictions of Virginia is being asked to enforce federal immigration law,” Morton told the AP. (That, despite this press release announcing the successful conclusion of a joint local, state and federal immigration enforcement operation in Virginia last week. Morton himself traveled to Richmond to join Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in announcing deportation proceedings against 13 immigrants convicted of sex crimes in Virgina.)

On Thursday, Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan sent a letter to Morton asking for clarification on whether Arlington can withdraw from Secure Communities. Morton says he’ll meet with individual localities to discuss the issue.

So far, federal authorities say Secure Communities has helped facilitate the removal of 40,000 criminal illegal immigrants.

County Presses for Clarification on Secure Communities

By ARLnow.com

At the board’s behest, Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan sent a letter to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton yesterday, seeking clarification on whether Arlington can withdraw from the Secure Communities program, and, if it can, how it may do so.

“We need to ask him to clarify this conflicting information we’ve been getting,” county board member Walter Tejada said in a telephone interview last night. He was referring to a recent Washington Post article that suggested communities will not be able to opt-out of the immigration enforcement initiative, as the county board had been led to believe.

“Once we have that clarification, and we better understand what else we need to be asking, we’re going to go from there,” Tejada said.

The board’s effort to opt-out of Secure Communities received a public endorsement this week when the New York Times ran an editorial calling on the Obama administration to accomodate the request. San Francisco, Santa Clara, Ca. and the District have also expressed interest in opting out of the program.

“Washington needs to find a way to allow cities like San Francisco and Washington to enforce the law without turning into a branch of ICE,” the Times said.

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Feds Slap Down Arlington’s Immigration Resolution

By ARLnow.com

Arlington’s effort to withdraw from the federal Secure Communities immigration enforcement program has hit a big snag. Turns out withdrawing is harder than the county board originally thought.

The program checks the immigration status of individuals arrested by local police agencies by using fingerprints submitted to the FBI. If an offender is a known illegal immigrant, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asks the local agency to hold the prisoner until immigration officers can take appropriate action.

The Washington Post reports that since local police need to check prisoners’ wanted status via the FBI database, withholding fingerprints from the Feds is not feasible.

“It is most frustrating,” said county board member Walter Tejada, upon learning of the revelation from a Washington Post reporter. Tejada, who championed the resolution that instructed the county manager to take steps to withdraw from Secure Communities, said lawyers and officials spent the summer researching how to opt out of the program.

BREAKING NEWS — County Board Votes to Withdraw from Immigration Enforcement Program

By ARLnow.com

The Arlington County board voted Tuesday afternoon to become the first community in Virginia — and one of the only communities in the country — to withdraw from the federal Secure Communities immigration enforcement program.

Following an impassioned presentation by board member Walter Tejada, and without further discussion, the board voted 5-0 to direct County Manager Michael Brown to formally notify Virginia State Police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Arlington’s intention to withdraw from the program, which Virginia implemented statewide earlier this year.

“This is something that was imposed on Arlington County and other jurisdictions,” Tejada said. “They didn’t ask our opinion, there was no public process.”

“Arlington county remains firmly committed to the protection of civil rights and civil liberties for all people,” Tejada added, saying actions by the state government have created “an anti-immigrant sentiment, regretfully.”

“We’ve had a pattern of measures that seek to score cheap political points on the backs of working immigrants,” he said.

Tejada said Arlington County law enforcement would maintain its current policy of only reporting undocumented immigrants directly to federal authorities in the event of serious crimes. He argued that the Secure Communities program is actually a hinderance to police.

“There are concerns among Arlington County law enforcement and our residents that the Secure Communities initiative will create divisions in our community, and promote a cultural fear and distrust of law enforcement that threatens communities and makes communities less safe,” Tejada said, reading from the text of the resolution.

The resolution also calls on the U.S. Congress to “enact meaningful and comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants.

A crowd that included at least a dozen immigration rights advocates rose to their feet and cheered after the vote. Many hugged and some whistled and threw their hands in the air.

In a joint statement following the vote, Arlington Sheriff Beth Arthur and Police Chief Douglas Scott said that the resolution will not change the way their respective departments enforce the law.

“Our goal remains unchanged – we are here to keep this community safe,” the statement reads. “And to do so, we must rely on strong partnerships and relationships with everyone in our community. We want to make sure that all people – regardless of their country of origin – continue to report crimes and do not fear interacting with Arlington County law enforcement.”

Update at 10:25 p.m. — The county has posted a text of the resolution here.

County Board to Consider Immigration Enforcement Resolution

By ARLnow.com

It’s not listed on the official agenda, but this afternoon the county board is expected to take up a resolution that could affect the way immigration laws are enforced in Arlington.

According to a group that supports the “controversial” resolution, its passage would “limit participation” by Arlington police in the federal Secure Communities program and would make Arlington the first Virginia county to “take measures protecting the sanctity of local law enforcement.”

“We support the Board’s efforts to distinguish Arlington law officers from federal immigration agents,” Tenants and Workers United spokesperson Esteban Garces said in a statement. “This resolution in an important step in the right direction. We fully expect continued leadership from local officials on this important issue.”

Tenants and Workers United is one of about a dozen immigrant advocacy groups that are expected to attend the board meeting at 3:30 this afternoon. The resolution will likely be taken up at the beginning of the meeting, during board reports. Board member Walter Tejada will introduce the resolution, but his assistant and county communications staff were unable to provide a text of the resolution.

Currently, Arlington Police only report undocumented immigrants directly to federal authorities in the event of serious crimes. By Virginia law, however, anyone booked at the Arlington County jail has their fingerprints taken and sent to the state, which in turn checks the fingerprints with FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases.

On its web site, Arlington County says it “complies with all federal and state laws related to immigration” but adds that “it is not the role of Arlington County law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.”

It’s unclear at this time what effect, if any, the resolution will have on current policy.

See our update on the county board’s vote here.

Dozens Protest Immigration Policies Outside Arlington DMV

By ARLnow.com

Nearly 100 people chanted slogans, held signs and beat drums outside the Arlington office of the Virginia DMV this afternoon, decrying tougher policies on immigrants enacted in the wake of a nun’s death in Prince William County.

The protesters, many of whom were affiliated with the Laborers International Union of North America and Alexandria-based Tenants and Workers United, were noisy but peaceful. Their hour-long protest was watched closely by a dozen Arlington County police officers.

The demonstrators were protesting two recent actions that they say amounts to a “war and persecution of Virginia’s immigrants.” Last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell barred the Department of Motor Vehicles from accepting “employment authorization documents,” commonly used by immigrants, as proof of legal residency. Then this week, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency revealed a change in policy that will put illegal immigrants charged with DUI on the fast track to deportation.

Both policy changes come after a Benedictine nun was killed in a crash that police say was caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk. Carlos Martinelly Montano, 23, was awaiting a deportation hearing on two prior DUI charges at the time of the August 1 wreck.

While calling Sister Denise Mosier’s death “tragic,” organizers of the protest said the crash should not be used to “promote an anti-immigrant agenda that would effectively segregate immigrants from society.”

“Some people are going all out to turn Virginia into the next Arizona,” Tenants and Workers United Suyapa Hernandez said in a statement. “We will not stand for this… we must unite and fight back against policies that divide and weaken our communities.”

“Racist application of the rule of law and state resources is an unfortunate legacy in Virginia politics,” said John Liss, executive director of Tenants and Workers United. “From slave-owners of the old South to the life-long disenfranchisement of ex-felons and recent attempts to… detain and deny immigrants their basic civil rights, we are witnessing the struggle of the dominant class to maintain control as the demographics… in the Commonwealth change.”

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Arlington PD Not Planning on Changing Immigration Policy After Cuccinelli Opinion

By ARLnow.com

The Arlington County Police Department does not plan on changing its hands-off immigration policies after Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ruled that law enforcement can ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.

Cuccinelli’s legal opinion also allows police to arrest individuals suspected of committing criminal violations of immigration laws (such as illegally crossing the border).

Currently, ACPD will not ask about citizenship status unless such information is relevant to solving a crime. The department does not arrest undocumented immigrants for federal immigration violations, and only reports undocumented immigrants to U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they’re:

  • Involved in terrorist, subversive or street gang activities
  • Arrested for a violent felony
  • Convicted of a non-violent felony
  • Helping others enter the U.S. through fraud

“The police department does not plan to change policies at this point,” said police spokesperson Det. Crystal Nosal. “Citizens living or traveling through Arlington should not be worried that our actions will be changing.”

Nosal said the department wants witnesses and victims of crime to feel safe coming to the police, “regardless of immigration status.”

Arlington police will, however, continue to enforce all warrants from federal agencies, including immigration-related warrants.

Volunteer Opp: French Speaker Needed for Health Outreach

By ARLnow.com

The Ethiopian Community Development Council is looking for a French speaker to communicate with recent immigrants about health issues. Specifically, the volunteer would help French-speaking African immigrants — mostly women — obtain screening for breast and colorectal cancer.

The organization, based near Columbia Pike, says the volunteer position would be ideal for a student or anyone else with a flexible schedule.

For more information contact Drishti Khatri at (703) 685-0510 x247.

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