The Free Lance-Star
RICHMOND, Virginia -- Weeks ago, a drunken driver struck and killed two girls in Virginia Beach.
The driver, it turned out, was an illegal immigrant. And he'd been arrested before.
The case led to howls of outrage--what was the driver even doing here? Why hadn't police shipped him off to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service when they first caught him?
The case shone a spotlight on difficulties with immigration law, and has spurred lawmakers to initiate a study they hope will lead to better prevention of such issues in the future.
--snip--
State law requires sheriff's offices, but not police departments, to discover the legal status of an offender, Stolle said. And those sheriff's offices are required to tell the National Crime Information Center, as well as ICE.
But some sheriff's offices, Stolle said, are reporting that when they tell the federal immigration service that they're holding an illegal immigrant, ICE won't return their phone calls.
That leaves sheriff's departments with nowhere to turn.
Posted by tyne at April 30, 2007