By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 21, 2008

More than 170 immigrants convicted of sex crimes are being deported after authorities found their names on Virginia's sex offender registry, state and federal officials announced yesterday.

Some of those being deported are undocumented immigrants, and others were in the United States legally, but all were convicted of sex crimes once they entered the country. All immigrants are subject to removal under federal law if they commit crimes of "moral turpitude."

The majority of those arrested in the past year, 36, were lawful permanent residents who had lived in Northern Virginia, officials said. One hundred and thirty-five offenders had been incarcerated for such crimes as sexually abusing a 4-year-old and using a "date-rape drug" to rape a woman. All will be deported.

The announcement marks another step in Virginia's escalating crackdown on undocumented immigrants, part of the broader debate over immigration that has roiled the nation and the presidential campaign. The Virginia campaign began when Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) asked state police to check the birthplace of everyone on the sex offender registry. State officials then gave federal agents a list of 527 sex offenders who were born overseas, and the agents compared it to law enforcement databases.

"I trust all Virginians agree that there is no place in Virginia for criminal alien sex offenders," McDonnell said. "We must take every possible step to remove these dangerous criminals from our commonwealth and nation."

Federal agents arrested 13 of the immigrants in the past week and 23 over the past year. Most had served their sentences and were living in Northern Virginia communities such as Alexandria and Woodbridge.

Officials said 84 sex offenders whose names turned up had left the country on their own or been deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are checking the remainder of the 527 names they received from Virginia.

Immigration experts and federal officials said they do not know of other states targeting immigrant sex offenders, but McDonnell said he plans to urge his colleagues across the nation to follow Virginia's lead. "I think Virginia is out in front of this, maybe not the absolute first, but definitely on the front end," said Bill Reed, special agent in charge of the Washington office of investigation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Groups on both sides of the immigration debate applauded the concept yesterday but expressed concerns over how Virginia is carrying out the crackdown.

"Certainly we want our immigration enforcers to focus on community safety and to prioritize serious crime," said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which pushes for fair immigration policies.

She added, however, that all immigrant sex offenders should not be deported automatically. "It depends on the seriousness of the crime, did it occur decades ago and have they since led an exemplary life," Butterfield said.

Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to crack down on illegal immigration, said: "The concern is that when you have open borders, many of these people are fleeing justice."

Dane added, however: "Checking a list for places of birth to identify a particular crime seems a little discriminatory or intrusive."

McDonnell said he decided to examine the registry, which lists names, addresses and other information about convicted sex offenders, after the General Assembly improved it in 2006. Asked why the registry had not been checked before, he said: "Clearly, perhaps in the past, things were not done as well as they should have been."

The sex offenders committed their crimes mostly in the past decade; the earliest was in 1996. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could not specify how many were undocumented immigrants or where they lived.

Many police agencies and prison officials in Virginia do not check the immigration status of people who are arrested, officials said.