The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

This will the be the topic of the May monthly meeting of the Arlington Committee of 100 (a public affairs/civic education program in the county).

Regular Monthly Dinner Meeting

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Macedonia Baptist Church

3412 S. 22nd Street, Arlington, VA 22204 (at the corners of Shirlington Road, Kenmore and 22nd Street.)

Dinner 7:00p.m.; Program 7:30p.m.

Sixteen recommendations were developed by the Diversity Dialogues. Our May program will help create options for implementing these recommendations. We are pleased that the Committee of 100 will be part of the follow-up for the Arlington County Diversity Dialogues, held in the fall of 2008.

You may have participated in them and wondered “what’s next?” Reverend Leonard Hamlin, senior pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church and Chair of the Diversity Dialogue Task Force, has invited us to his church on May 13th to discuss how to implement the 16 recommendations. Our members will be joined by some of Rev. Hamlin’s congregation, along with other Dialogue attendees, and other interested community members.

For more information, click here.

Labels: diversity, immigration, psa

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:46 AM 0 comments

Two big stories top the news this week: School Board candidates answered a survey by the HeraldTrib just in time for the elections later this week (Terron Sims got his response in earlier today. I'll post it tomorrow morning. --ST). The county jail, on a daily basis, has 75 to 90 inmates who are being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Most are from elsewhere, but Arlington holds its own, too. [Mr. Sims' response has been posted, May 1. --ST] (Scroll down for the links.)

Arlington made a big splash late last year with a resolution stating that the county would follow all state and federal laws regarding immigration, but was still immigrant friendly while other Virginia counties were cracking down on illegals.

At the time, the county said that our police department would not be tracking down illegal aliens and asking about citizenship for every minor offense. What is less known is that under certain circumstances, the police will ask.

In fact the sheriff’s department must, by state law, ask about citizenry every time they book someone in their system. See the link to the story, below.

I have no plans to endorse a candidate in the school board race. I really have no plans to vote later this week when the Democratic party “endorses” its candidate. (I might change my mind, but we'll see.)

But I thought it was important to get the views of school board candidates, so that’s what I did (see their responses to the HeraldTrib survey, below).

Since political parties cannot nominate individuals to run for school board, they can only “endorse.” They do this by holding elections, open to everyone, and whoever gets the most votes (this year it is the top two vote-getters) wins the “endorsement.”

What stinks is that anyone who wants a shot at the “endorsement” must sign a statement saying that they will not continue to run if they lose the “endorsement.” It is a silly system both that the state will not allow a party to nominate and that the Democratic leadership plays along.

The winner of this election goes on to win in November, generally, since most of the field has been cleared out by the idiotic statement they signed. (The last question in the survey asked if any of the people planned to continue running if they lost—I was hopeful that one of them would write, “Hell Yeah!” but of course that did not happen).

I do not like the Tammany Hall feeling of the process. It’s an endorsement, or it is supposed to be. I believe it was yesterday that the governor of North Carolina endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. With his endorsement he did not say, “Now Obama MUST exit the race.” An endorsement should not carry that kind of weight.

Face it, the person who gets endorsed most likely will win, even if everyone could stay in the race (though I am sure some would bow out). Let the process run.

I have been meaning to report on this just a bit. You’ll notice Delancie has left the Arlington Oaks truck and is depositing mail in the box outside the El Paso Cafè.

A few astute readers have told me (and I believe it even came up at the Buckingham Center forum a couple weeks back) that the mailbox is too far from the curb!

It would have been just far enough to be a good practical joke if it weren’t permanent. Readers have told me they cannot reach the slot from their drivers' seats.

Normally I say, “Get out and walk for Pete’s sake, it won’t kill ya.” Yet the entire point of this box is that it keeps people from having to walk up to it. With luck, crews will move the box.

As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).

Today's Headlines:

County Jail Holds Detainees for ICE

Police Notes for Buckingham

Headlines from Earlier in the Week:

School Board Candidates Answer Surveys

Labels: aps, Buckingham, election, ice, immigration, school board, schools

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:09 AM 0 comments

Arlington County Police will not ask people they stop or arrest if they are United States citizens, in most circumstances, but the Arlington County Sheriff’s Department will. By Virginia law they have to. What might be most surprising is that the detainees answer. Truthfully.

“I would say 99.9 percent of the people will be honest in their responses,” said Maj. Susie Doyel, director of administration in the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office. She said those arrested probably think the sheriff will figure it out anyway, but that might not be the case. In fact, they are not really going to investigate it.

“If you say you’re born in Germany, but you’re a U.S. citizen, we won’t say, ‘Well, produce your passport, produce your papers,’” she said.

However, the “born in Germany” response would require the sheriff’s department to run the person’s name through Immigration Alien Query, a database, and send the name on to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the name is flagged.

At that point, another form would be sent to the state police via the Central Criminal Records Exchange, a warehouse of criminal data run by the state police. If ICE is interested in the person, they will ask Arlington County to hold that inmate for 72 hours.

On any given day, the county might be holding 75 to 90 inmates for ICE, Maj. Doyel said.

A snapshot look at the inmates from April 23, showed that the county held 82 inmates for ICE, with an average stay of 52.56 days. One person at that point had been held for 260 days, more than eight months, according to figures released by the sheriff’s office. But those numbers are a bit misleading as most of those inmates likely were neither arrested in, nor had been living in, Arlington, said Maj. Doyel.

Ernestine Fobbs, a public relations officer for ICE, said her agency often uses the Arlington jail as a layover space because it is so close to federal offices and courts.

“Our numbers [of detainees] have gone up since this whole immigration thing has gone up,” Maj. Doyel said, referring to the crack-down on illegal immigration in Prince William County and elsewhere in the state and nation. ICE is using Arlington more, partly because of the location, and partly because Arlington has space.

Although the jail must first be used for local incarcerations, it can be used for federal detentions, too. Arlington not only houses inmates for ICE but for the U.S. Marshalls Service at $91.62 per day per federal inmate. The state takes $26.83 of that money. That compares to about $8 per day the county gets from the state for housing local inmates (the state also pays other money such as portions of salaries).

On average, the county spends about $146 per inmate per day, but the average drops with each additional inmate, so long the jail remains under about 650 inmates, Maj. Doyel said.

“It’s [the federal money is] just helping to offset our costs that we’re going to have anyway,” Maj. Doyel said. “I think it’s definitely advantageous to the county.”

At a recent meeting in Buckingham, Arlington County Police Officer J. Mike Lutz, said he knew of three people who had been deported after being arrested near the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Pershing Drive. The only details available on this so far are that the arrests happened last year.

The county cannot release the names and most recent addresses of the inmates without approval from ICE, Maj. Doyel said. [That approval is in process. –ST]

So it is impossible to know at this point how many people in the Buckingham neighborhood have been detained for immigration reasons.

How anyone might have ended up being held for ICE is a bit complicated. The Arlington County Police Department will not ask people about their countries of birth, generally. “We don’t stop everyone and ask everyone what they’re immigration status is,” said John Lisle, a spokesperson for the police. Police will not enter a person’s name into the IAQ database for routine traffic stops and other minor offenses.

But they will enter the name when people are arrested for violent felonies, for suspected human trafficking, for violent gang activity, and for terrorism or some other major crimes.

(Generally, Arlington police handle patrolling the county, arresting people and investigating crime. The sheriff’s department handles incarcerations, prisoner transfers, and works with the court system. The sheriff also handles civil matters such as evictions.)

If the person self-identifies as having been born outside the United States, the police will run the name through the database.

Anyone who is incarcerated at the county jail will be asked about their country of birth, and the names of people who say they were born outside the United States will be run through the various databases by the sheriff’s office at the time of the person’s booking.

But what happens if the inmates do not identify themselves as from another country?

“That’s the sticky question right now,” Maj. Doyel said. “If you don’t speak one lick of English, we have to report that.” And if police find a passport from another country, the person must be reported. There is little else to go on. And probable cause for running a name through the database remains unclear, and skin-tone will not cut it, she said.

Once inmates have been flagged by the IAQ or other databases, the clock starts ticking. The county notifies ICE and the Virginia state police. The state police do little with the information other than catalogue it and send it on to ICE themselves, a spokesperson said.

ICE has 30 minutes to respond to the sheriff’s office. If the sheriff does not hear from ICE in that 30 minutes, and the local charges have been dealt with (for instance, the person has made bail), then the person can go.

If ICE responds in the first half-hour asking that the person be held, ICE then has 72 hours to determine whether to press charges. Again, if that time passes and ICE does not respond, the person will be released so long local charges have been dealt with.

According to Ms. Fobbs, local jurisdictions can decide how they want to identify potential illegal aliens. But once ICE, as the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is notified, they will investigate, and if necessary will detain individuals on charges of immigration violations.

“We [ICE] make the final decision as to whether that individual is in the country illegally or has some status in the United States,” Ms. Fobbs said, adding that an immigration judge will rule in some cases.

For her part, Maj. Doyel said she thought ICE is much more likely to have Arlington hold them if the person is to stand trial.

“It’s much easier [to deport] them if they have been convicted,” Maj. Doyel said.

VA Law says Sheriff must ask about citizenship

Labels: Buckingham, Crime, immigration, Police

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:09 AM 0 comments

Although a statement from a statewide immigrant rights group said nothing positive came from this year’s General Assembly session, the outcome could have been worse for immigrants in Virginia had legislators passed many of the 100-plus immigration-related bills during the 2008 legislative session, admitted Andres Tobar, the president of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations. VACOLAO is an umbrella group that organizes many local and state groups.

“Cool heads on both sides,” especially in the party leadership, won in Richmond, he said in an interview. In a press release, he cited senators Richard Saslaw, the Senate majority leader (D-35, Fairfax County), and Emmett Hanger Jr. (R-24, Mt. Solon, near Staunton) as deserving particular praise.

Sen. Hanger offered a bill that would have allowed students whose families are in the process of becoming legal aliens or citizens, who have lived in Virginia for at least three years, and who have been paying taxes, to go to state colleges paying in-state tuition. It failed after a lot of wrangling, according to the Assembly’s web site.

Leni Gonzalez, another activist with VACOLAO, said in an interview, “We have had some success,” during this session. She said that students without full documentation can still go to college, but they pay out-of-state-tuition, about $19,000 per year for full-time undergraduate students at George Mason University.

“The House’s determination to punish children for the acts of their parents can only yield increased drop outs and enhanced gang recruitment,” Mr. Tobar said in a press release. In the interview, he called students unable to continue an education a “tremendous loss of talent.”

This sentiment was echoed by Walter Tejada, the Arlington County Board president who had travelled with Mr. Tobar, Ms. Gonzalez and others to Richmond on Jan. 15 for “Lobby Day.” Leaders, students and others spoke to legislators then to curry support.

“The General Assembly, yet again, held another mean-spirited show,” Mr. Tejada said in an interview today. He lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Republicans, especially those in the House of Delegates who voted against a bill the Senate unanimously supported. The bill would have made it illegal for law enforcement officials to ask a victim about his or her immigration status. Now victims of crime can be “victimized twice,” Mr. Tejada said.

One of the many bills that did not pass, however, was a bill creating “a division of legal presence investigation and enforcement within the Department of State Police.”

Introduced by Del. Paul Nichols (D-51, Woodbridge) the bill would have established a new 100 officer State Police division to “conduct investigations related to the failure by individuals to provide evidence or proof of legal presence in the Commonwealth when required by law.” The division would work with United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Although many bills that would have cracked down on illegal immigration did not pass, Mr. Tejada said he was not willing to look favorably on the session. Although the bills were struck down, it was an awful lot of bills to strike, he said. On top of that, the number of bills just shows that Virginia really is not open to immigration, he said. Work needs to be done to find them new jobs come November, he said.

Ms. Gonzalez is not ready to determine how good this year’s session was, either.

“We can make an assessment after April 2 or 3, when they reconvene,” she said. “Probably by the end of April we’ll be able to say was it good or bad.”

Labels: general assembly, immigration

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 2:47 PM 2 comments