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Va. congressmen want better police access to immigration data

Associated Press
Published: March 17, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Three Virginia congressmen want federal officials to make it easier for police to determine whether criminal suspects are illegal immigrants.

Police in many localities now use the honor system, asking suspects from other countries about their immigration status when they’re arrested. A national database lets police check their criminal history.

But Republican Congressman Eric Cantor said that database doesn’t include immigration status, which is maintained in a separate database by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Cantor and fellow Virginia Republicans Thelma Drake and Rob Wittman ask officials to create a solution, like linking the two databases or giving police automatic access to the ICE database.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 19, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Phdee i have never said police haven’t given stiffer sentences to blacks for similar crimes committed by whites in the past. Are you advocating that illegals should be released for dui’s , dwi’s, causing accidents without licenses and insurance. Especially when you know they are a flight risk. If anything the Illegal Resolution is a reinforcement of Federal laws already on the books. LOL Chris Cummings

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Posted by ( phdee ) on March 19, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Ziggy, and American don’t drink and drive, or flee the scene? Ha ha ho Ho. Where have you been?
ZCX, where have you been all these years? Blacks have always been stopped by police, get stiffer sentences, etc. Dom’t forget the resolution is a Southern rebirth pf segregation, civil rights violations, KKK, etc. with PWC BOCS taking the lead - and tired and spent racists following.

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Posted by ( ZIGGY ) on March 19, 2008 at 10:31 am

If illegal immigrants are willing to break one law - what is to stop them from breaking others? Look at the officer that was hit the other day when he was off duty. The immigrant was not only here illegally, he was drinking and driving and tried to flee after running into the officer. Why this has be an issue to better supply our officers with better information is ridiculous. We hear too many times about government agencies not working together. Here is a chance to do things right. Let’s do it.

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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 18, 2008 at 5:42 pm

All illegal immigrants are criminals, most legal immigrants agree. Any poll taken will tell you 70-80% of the US is against illegal immigration. Gallup, Zogby, Reuters, CNN, Pew, what more evidence do you need. When you go after a criminal suspect based on a profile then you are profiling. So by that notion having police departments is illegal, lol. Profiling is a farce made up by criminal apologists. PWC is just a county trying to follow the law and illegal immigrants are breaking that same law. Why can’t they wait in line and pay like the rest of us? Chris Cummings

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Posted by ( phdee ) on March 18, 2008 at 4:21 pm

Occoquanlost, the Bush administration has laid to rest any notion that we observe human rigfhts. PWC is just a puppy dog following the Bush fascist line.

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Posted by ( Occoquanlost ) on March 17, 2008 at 7:47 pm

I guess all immigrants are criminals. Why don’t we have concentration camps to put them in? or perhaps, execute them when we find them. Are we China, and do not believe in Human Rights?

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Posted by ( Peter ) on March 17, 2008 at 6:15 pm

I’m a white male, I wonder if pwc police will ever ask me about my immigration status if I’m on a court situation????

stop discriminating other races, profiling is illegal.

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Posted by ( Advocator ) on March 17, 2008 at 3:01 pm

One wonders why longtime Northern Virginia Republican Congressmen Tom Davis and Frank Wolf are not joining in this request. Could it be that they’re just not interested in identifying criminals who should not be in this country in the first place?

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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 17, 2008 at 2:54 pm

A better system for sure. Chris Cummings

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