Dan Genz, The Examiner
2007-07-12 07:00:00.0
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Prince William County -

The new Prince William County resolution designed to deport criminal illegal immigrants will face significant obstacles, county officials said.

An overcrowded jail, limits on how many illegal immigrants can be referred to federal authorities and the length of the deportation process could lead to major costs and long delays for deportation.

The County Board unanimously approved a measure Tuesday to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

The county agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement sets a cap of 40 illegal immigrant referrals per month, said County Executive Craig Gerhart. If many more illegal immigrants are arrested, holding them will stress the system’s capacity, he said.

Police Chief Charlie Deane said the county should develop criteria to ensure the “worst of the worst” are included among those sent to ICE.

But Gerhart told the County Board to be prepared for “a real bottleneck” as the county-ICE partnership moves forward. The jail system is already overtaxed. The Prince William Manassas Jail inmate population was 390 above its state-rated capacity on Wednesday, Superintendent Skip Land said.

While most of those inmates are housed two to a cell, 115 are held in other Virginia jails at a cost of $50 per day, or more than $2 million a year. That does not include hefty transportation and overtime costs associated with the jail overflow.

Supervisor John Stirrup, author of the measure, said the county must address those challenges to accomplish the goal. He proposed new detention centers to specifically accommodate illegal immigrants and said public pressure could force ICE to increase or do away with its cap.

“This is clearly something that needs to be done but it will be a challenge with our existing jail space,” Stirrup said.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com