Loudoun To Check Residency In Arrests

Loudoun County law enforcement officials said yesterday they will start routinely checking the immigration status of all people arrested in the county if deputies suspect they are in the United States illegally, implementing a policy similar to one that set off controversy in neighboring Prince William County.

Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson (I) told the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors that he had reached agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to participate in a program that ultimately seeks to deport illegal immigrants convicted of serious felonies.

Although federal agents are interested only in deporting certain felons, Loudoun will use a computerized ICE program to check even those charged with minor offenses if there's reason to believe they are illegal immigrants, Simpson said in an interview.

ICE will take custody only of those who have been convicted of certain felonies, including violent crimes, or who have returned to the United States illegally after being deported, he said.

The ICE program, also used in Manassas, Manassas Park and Herndon, will begin in Loudoun this summer, Simpson said.

In Prince William, the immigration status of those arrested is checked when they are booked, a police spokeswoman said yesterday. Some officials said this spring that federal agents took weeks to pick up suspected illegal immigrants from the county's overcrowded jail.

In Loudoun, Simpson said ICE officials rejected his request to allow jail officials access to immigration data. The program will be administered instead by three members of the sheriff's gang unit who will largely work at night, he said.

Simpson called the partnership with ICE a "big tool for us," especially in dealing with gangs operating in Loudoun.

"I know when we work with gang members, a lot of times we got through a number of different identifications and different names and different aliases and that type of thing before you get to actually who they are," Simpson said. "And if you don't have a way of getting into this system to find out if they have ever been arrested in California, you may never know that information."

Last year, as illegal immigration became a key issue in local elections, Simpson initially opposed participating in the ICE program, saying federal authorities wanted a burdensome guarantee that they could rent space in the overcrowded Loudoun jail to house detainees awaiting deportation hearings. Simpson began supporting the program after one of his opponents in the election campaign repeatedly accused him of being soft on illegal immigrants.

"It took him a while to get to this point, and I'm happy that he's there," said Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling), who had been the board's strongest proponent of a hard line against illegal immigrants.

In November, voters ousted several supervisors who supported Delgaudio's hard-line attitude. The board is now dominated by Democrats who have said immigration enforcement is not one of their priorities.