ICE faces illegals backlog

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Federal immigration officials acknowledge that they have failed to keep pace with the number of illegal immigrants arrested in Prince William County and are meeting with county leaders to resolve the problem.

"Both parties recognized that due to the dramatic increase in the number of aliens being sent to [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] beyond the originally projected caseload, closer coordination will be required," said agency spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs. "It's a large influx. We are removing them as efficiently and quickly as we can."

Miss Fobbs did not further explain the extent of the delay or the process.

In July, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted in favor of a local crackdown on illegal immigration. The program is expected to cost $6.3 million next year to fund needs such as video cameras, equipment in police cruisers and staffing of the specially trained Criminal Alien Unit, composed of six detectives and one civilian.

The crackdown began March 3, after ICE agents trained county police officers on how to deal with illegal immigrants suspected of violating local or state laws.

County officials reported last week that officers encountered 89 illegals in the first month of the program and made 41 arrests on local and state charges.

ICE officials said they met last week with Patrick Hurd, board chairman for the county jail, and jail Superintendent Pete A. Meletis to discuss the backlog in inmate transfers to federal custody. They could not be reached for comment about the outcome of the meeting.

Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, said yesterday that he and the other supervisors plan to meet this week with ICE officials to discuss the issue. Mr. Stewart, at-large Republican, said he expects only a short-term "bottleneck" because the county jail will be expanded by 200 beds this year. The jail now can accommodate 780 inmates.

The county and ICE "will continue to work together to facilitate a more expedient way to transition aliens" from the jail into federal custody, Miss Fobbs said.

From July until March 3, county police detained 632 immigrant suspects. Since the crackdown took effect, 113 suspects were held in the county jail for ICE and 23 had been verified as illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants charged with local crimes are turned over to ICE when their trials and sentences for local crimes conclude.

The problem was foreshadowed last year when state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, vice chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission, repeatedly said budget constraints were keeping federal immigration officials from hiring enough employees to adequately handle requests from local sheriffs to pick up illegal immigrants.

Last year, ICE officials were notified roughly 12,000 times about illegal immigrants in Virginia jails, but picked up just 700 of them.

• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.