Legislation sponsored by a Woodbridge lawmaker would prevent state and local police from being sued for implementing new immigration policies.

Virginia law already gives immunity to state and local government leaders and employees from being sued over their public duties, but Prince William County supervisors asked Republican Del. Scott Lingamfelter to file the proposal because they are concerned those protections would not extend to immigration enforcement, which traditionally has been handled by the federal government. The federal government has similar shields for its agents and officials.

“It’s somewhat unclear whether our role in enforcing federal immigration law is as covered by immunity as we would like it to be,” said Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart. “We don’t want a lawsuit to be filed against the county or an officer for serving a government function.”

Among the county’s initiatives is a measure to check the immigration status of every person the police come in contact with, regardless of whether the individual is arrested. If a county officer begins deportation proceedings against someone because a federal database wrongly shows that person is in the country illegally, for example, the immunity measure would prevent that person from suing the county.

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“They are afraid of being sued because the federal government got it wrong,” said Del. David Albo, R-Springfield, chairman of the House committee that will review the measure in January. “They are taking [checking immigration status] to extremes. I think the better approach would be just to check everyone who gets arrested. It is a simpler approach.”

Josh Bernstein, a policy expert at the National Immigration Law Center, a nonprofit group that advocates for low-income immigrants, said any state immunity law should mirror federal statutes, which do not protect governmental bodies or officials if their conduct is illegal.

“When you’re enforcing immigration law, it certainly heightens the likelihood that someone might be racially profiled,” he said. “The state would do well not to restrict the rights people would have in that instance.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com