State officials are responding the the American Civil Liberties Union’s having sent a letter asking law enforcement officials to ignore a recent opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli saying police can ask the legal status of a person who is stopped or arrested.
Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, whose inquiry prompted Cuccinelli to issue his opinion, said he couldn’t understand why the organization would encourage law enforcement to ignore the opinion.
“The Attorney General is the highest ranking law enforcement official in Virginia,” he said in a statement. “The ACLU’s position essentially allows alien terrorists and gang members to be untouchable in this country. We cannot allow this to continue.”
Meanwhile, Dana Schrad, Executive Director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, penned her own letter to the ACLU in response.
“I’ve told reporters and chiefs that the opinion probably will NOT change police policies and practices in Virginia, and that the opinion — as we read it — is the Attorney General’s clarification that law enforcement is not PROHIBITED from asking about immigration status,” Schrad wrote. “This is much different than the MANDATE that is part of the Arizona statute.”
“Not a single police chief in Virginia has contacted me to say that the Attorney General’s opinion will change the way that they interact with the immigrant communities in their jurisdictions,” she continued. “Our police departments take a very balanced approach in this area to ensure that immigrants who are here legally as well as illegally are willing to cooperate in police investigations and comply with state laws and local ordinances. Each situation is unique, but by and large, police officers ask about immigration status when it is relevant to the investigation, and not as a matter of course in every detention or investigation.”
