Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-03-18 08:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Virginia lawmakers want the federal government to combine the nation’s massive criminal and immigration databases to make it easier for jail officers to check the U.S. residency status of inmates at the time of their arrival.

Virginia Republican Reps. Eric Cantor, Thelma Drake and Rob Wittman asked the federal Department of Homeland Security to add illegal immigration status to the National Crime Information Center database police officers and jail officials regularly check.

“The current database restrictions force law enforcement officials to ask inmates whether they are legal or not. That should not be happening,” the lawmakers wrote. “We hope that in the near future all inmates … will be fingerprinted and put through a database that determines both past criminal activity and legality.”

Illegal immigrant criminals who should be deported are being missed, the lawmakers wrote.

While Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials would not comment on the letter Monday afternoon, there is concern the database is complicated and requires ICE agents or trained officials to correctly interpret the files.

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a lobbyist for the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, said the lawmakers’ letter proposes a measure the Major City Chiefs Association, a group of police chiefs representing the nation’s largest cities, opposed in a 2006 letter.

Two major problems she cited is that the ICE database contains civil violations, which someone cannot be detained for, and criminal violations, which merit detention.

But what the lawmakers are looking for is a better, faster system that will provide law enforcement agents the information they need to determine whether the inmate should be deported, Wittman said

“What we’re saying is, ‘Look, realize the utility this system has and the scope that it can address and make sure that we have a system that is able to do it,’ ” Wittman told The Examiner. “What we’re looking at is trying to make sure we have a system that is timely.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com