Virginia law enforcement ups the ante on immigrant status checks
WASHINGTON–Under a new policy, Manassas, Virginia police officers ;plan to begin checking the citizenship status of everyone who is arrested for local and state offenses.
The new departmental policy, effective Dec. 1, expands on existing policies that allow the city’s police department to check an individual’s immigration status at an officer’s discretion, or when there is probable cause before an arrest is made.
The Manassas police department announced the policy Tuesday, a day after Chief of Police John Skinner, presented it to the Manassas City Council as a way to coordinate Manassas’ efforts with those of neighboring Prince William County. The two jurisdictions share a jail and work closely on anti-illegal immigration efforts.
“We didn’t really have an illegal immigration policy and we tried to mirror Prince William County,” said Sgt. Tim Neumann of the Manassas Police Department. “Whenever we would arrest criminals in the past, [the status check] would be done for the more serious crimes. Now, like in Prince William, this allows us to do it for the minor offenses too.”
Source:
Virginia law enforcement ups the ante on immigrant status checks
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