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Spotsy sheriff shocked, amazed

Sheriff criticizes supervisor for never discussing illegal-immigration policy with him

See the sheriff's letter to Spotsylvania County supervisors (PDF)

Date published: 10/11/2007

By DAN TELVOCK

Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard Smith is "shocked and amazed" that a supervisor asked staff this week to investigate the costs and benefits of having deputies enforce federal immigration laws.

That's his reaction because on Aug. 10 Smith sent a three-page memo to Spotsylvania supervisors detailing a plan to use the training provided under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act for jail wardens, not patrol deputies.

Smith said he never heard back from Supervisor Chris Yakabouski, who made the request at Tuesday night's board meeting. Yakabouski's motion passed unanimously. Illegal immigration is a focus of Yakabouski's senate campaign material.

"If Chris was serious about tackling the issue of illegal immigrants here in Spotsylvania County I would think he would talk to the sheriff about it," the sheriff said. "Mr. Yakabouski has never talked to me at all about illegal immigration in the county."

The sheriff is a constitutional officer; he is not bound by supervisors' decisions. But supervisors do fund some of his budget.

Yakabouski, who is challenging Sen. Edd Houck (D-Spotsylvania), said he doesn't understand why the sheriff is upset.

"Part of this was to bring the sheriff into the loop," he said.

Smith's Aug. 10 memo states the best way to combat illegal immigration locally is to have Rappahannock Regional Jail wardens take the five-week federal training. Using patrol deputies would take them off the streets for more than a month, and all the costs would fall on county taxpayers.

After the training, jail wardens could access federal immigration databases for records instead of dealing with federal immigration officials over the phone. Smith said the jail approach has been successful across the nation.

"To me, the best approach for us is to look at it regionally," he said. "That way we all share some of the costs and we do it through our local jail. Then you are targeting illegal immigrants who are breaking the law."

It takes a deputy two hours to process the paperwork to deport an illegal immigrant, Smith said. Such open-ended enforcement also worries the Hispanic community because it implies that deputies will stop and question all Hispanics, the sheriff said.

And the jail also is overcrowded, Smith said.

"If we go out on the street and start enforcing illegal-immigration laws, and start arresting a bunch of people, we don't have a place to put them," Smith said.

Yakabouski said he doesn't remember what Smith's memo recommended. He said he'd rather keep the dialogue in the open, and he doesn't usually give people a "head's up of what I might be doing when I ask staff to gather information."

"I think these discussions need to be held in the public," he said.

Sheriff Howard Smith said officials with the Rappahannock Regional Jail prefer a regional approach to illegal immigration. Status checks are conducted on anyone arrested. Smith said if an inmate is an illegal immigrant, a jail official can call ICE to pick that person up when the sentence ends. The jail can charge the federal government as much as $108 a day until ICE officials pick up the person after the federal agency is notified. Since March, 46 people have been turned over to ICE, Smith said.

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Date published: 10/11/2007

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