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Prince William jail facing crowding, costs, from ICE program

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Prince William County Adult Detention Center

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Associated Press
Published: April 8, 2008

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) _ Officials at the Prince William County jail say new local policies that require residency checks of inmates suspected of being in the country illegally have pushed crowding at the jail to an all-time high.

In recent letters to local officials and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, jail board Chairman Patrick Hurd said the new policies are straining jail employees and the jail is spending more than $220,000 per month to house prisoners elsewhere.

Under a partnership with ICE that began in July, local law enforcement officers get training in processing suspected illegal immigrants. ICE agents are supposed to pick up the suspects within 72 hours. Hurd, however, says agents are taking weeks to pick up the suspects.

ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs says the agency is pledging to step up its commitment

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 08, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Just wait until the remaining of the 12 million kick in. I keep asking “what is the plan and how are you going to finance it?” but HSM keeps slip sliding away on that. We DO have monies now being spent on securing Iraq’s borders from illegal immigrants, but we wouldn’t want to use that money for our own benefit, would we?

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Posted by ( RSF750 ) on April 08, 2008 at 2:49 pm

It is unfortunate about the cost. But I don’t think it was unexpected. I think we stay the course and stick with the program the officers are trained for.

I am sure the US gives tons of monetary support to Mexico and Latin American countries that are the original homes of many of the illegal aliens in custody. I think our law makers should be able to fund programs that we need to handle and process illegal aliens with those dollars in the form of a “do more to keep your own people from leaving your country” tax.

Instead of being upset at the way American’s upholds it laws, immigrant support groups should work to pressure the source countries to better their own economic climates. There needs to be more pressure from these groups to demand better race relations within the source countries.

Americans are law-biding citizens. Nothing more and nothing less.

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Posted by ( AndiMedi ) on April 08, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Aren’t we going to end up spending a lot more than we save with all this? Who is responsible for this albatross?? The cure is way worse than the “disease” that immigration activists told us we had.

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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on April 08, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Only $200k a month, looks like the Resolution is coming in under budget, now ICE needs to come and get their prisoners instead of dragging their feet. Chris Cummings

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Posted by ( Calisto ) on April 08, 2008 at 1:45 pm

What a crock!

Hey, Ernestine, just step up the effort of ICE to get them out!

Wow, and this were only 89 last month and our prison is overcrowded. Guess, that must be a very small prison since the Potomac News reported

>>In all, he said, police made contact with 89 illegal immigrants.

Of those, local charges were placed against 39, 25 were released on traffic or criminal summons and two were taken into custody for federal immigration violations, police said.

Well, if we do “urban cleaning” than they do “if we can’t get them out, we breed them out!”

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Posted by ( phdee ) on April 08, 2008 at 12:51 pm

“urban renewal”? Wasn’t that a concept of a few years back where planners moved blacks out of neighborhoods so upscale housing could be built for wealthy whites? Same goal, same tactic in PWC - only the victims have changfed.

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Posted by ( 25YrResident ) on April 08, 2008 at 11:25 am

“Ethnic cleansing”? That one made me laugh! Try “urban renewal”.

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Posted by ( phdee ) on April 08, 2008 at 10:20 am

This ethnic cleansing resolution will eat us ut of home and property. We have Stewart, Stirrup, Mays, Letiecq, HSM, and other kooks to thank.

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