NOTHING ABOUT Prince William County's crackdown on illegal immigrants has turned out to be easy.
The latest hiccup concerns its local jail, which is being squeezed by a new policy that requires staff to check the residency status of inmates and begin deportation procedures for those without their papers.
Federal immigration authorities have taken their sweet time picking up the detainees, creating a tense and costly backlog in the already crowded jail. That has forced county officials to shuttle overflow inmates across the state in search of other local jails willing to rent out extra beds. The price tag for gas, extra manpower and cell leases was crawling toward $3 million a year, according to a report in The Washington Post.
The feds snapped into action and hauled off 60 detainees this week after receiving an irate letter from U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf. But the incident suggests Prince William will waste much time and energy nagging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for the foreseeable future.
County supervisors should have anticipated this problem. Last summer, they received a letter from Prince William Police Chief Charlie Deane raising concerns about the impact of the new policy on the jail. And jail officials warned that, under the new policy, their inmate population would grow because people charged with minor crimes could not be released on bond if they were illegal immigrants.
That policy assumed ICE would pick up detainees promptly, which turned out to be an optimistic notion. The agency agreed to pick up detainees within 72 hours of the date they complete their sentences, but ICE officials left themselves wiggle room. They are not obligated to take Prince William's illegal wards if no federal prison beds are available, which is frequently the case. As a result, Prince William taxpayers get stuck playing host to detainees.
Given the federal government's inability to agree on appropriate immigration reforms, it's understandable that Prince William residents are looking for leaders willing to fill that void. Unfortunately, county leaders responded with mean-spirited ordinances that require residency checks on children who sign up for sports leagues and elderly people seeking in-home support services.
The county's effort to identify illegal immigrants already jailed on other criminal charges is a more reasonable goal. However, leaders had a responsibility to make sure they had the resources to carry out the program. The problems Prince William is now experiencing were predicted, repeatedly, by police and jail officials.
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