Legal status of Fairfax Co. inmates to be checked
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Date: March 10, 2009 11:52AM
Legal status of Fairfax Co. inmates to be checked
March 10, 2009 - 8:43am
Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Inmates in the Fairfax County Detention Center will be screened to see whether they are in the U.S. legally.
"Everyone is screened through fingerprints, and it goes through all of the federal databases to find out if they're in this country illegally," says Fairfax County Sheriff Stan Barry.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has faced some sharp criticism from local governments for not helping with Northern Virginia's illegal immigration problems, will pay for the Fairfax County checks.
ICE will conduct a video conference to confirm the identity of the person, then will come to the detention center to process the person for deportation, Stan says.
Barry says several hundred people in his jail may be illegal.
ICE will take any inmate once that inmate has gone through the local courts. At first, only those accused of major crimes will be processed.
Since 2007, local taxpayers have been footed the bill in Prince William County for similar screenings.
(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Inmates in the Fairfax County Detention Center will be screened to see whether they are in the U.S. legally.
"Everyone is screened through fingerprints, and it goes through all of the federal databases to find out if they're in this country illegally," says Fairfax County Sheriff Stan Barry.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has faced some sharp criticism from local governments for not helping with Northern Virginia's illegal immigration problems, will pay for the Fairfax County checks.
ICE will conduct a video conference to confirm the identity of the person, then will come to the detention center to process the person for deportation, Stan says.
Barry says several hundred people in his jail may be illegal.
ICE will take any inmate once that inmate has gone through the local courts. At first, only those accused of major crimes will be processed.
Since 2007, local taxpayers have been footed the bill in Prince William County for similar screenings.