Pr. William officials file lawsuit against DHS
By Jennifer Buske
Prince William County officials filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, demanding information on the thousands of illegal immigrants the county has transferred to DHS.
The lawsuit asks DHS to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year that asked for the information on the 3,000 immigrants Prince William has sent to DHS since 2008. County officials said another 1,000 immigrants have been turned over since the FOIA request.
“It is frustrating that we as a local government must resort to suing the federal government to get information, which the public has a right to know and which is vital to our law enforcement efforts,” Prince William Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said. “I’m disappointed in the lack of cooperation from DHS.”
This is
the second lawsuit Prince William has filed against DHS. Both were prompted by an August 2010 car accident in which Carlos Martinelly-Montano, 24, was allegedly driving drunk when he crashed into a car carrying three nuns, killing one.
Martinelly-Montano entered the country from Bolivia illegally when he was 8. He had been released by immigration authorities after two previous drunk-driving convictions and had been awaiting a deportation hearing.
The first lawsuit was filed in March after DHS failed to comply with a FOIA request that asked for information containing to Martinelly-Montano’s case and how he had been able to be released back into the community.
Homeland Security officials, who have spoken to The Post anonymously, have said they have looked into why Martinelly-Montano was released back into the community, however will not make those results public.
Martinelly-Montano has since been charged with felony murder, maiming resulting from driving drunk, involuntary manslaughter,
driving on a suspended or revoked license and for driving while intoxicated for the third time in five years. He is scheduled to appear in Prince William Circuit Court in November.
Stewart said he is also
frustrated with Congress for their lack of involvement. In February, county officials asked Congress to subpoena the information from DHS since the agency was not answering the county’s FOIA request. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), however, had already made a run for the information, sending a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in October.
“I am frustrated with the dismissive attitude of Congress, which has failed to compel DHS to turn over this information,” Stewart said.
“Frankly, the Republicans in the House of Representatives are just as dismissive as the Obama administration on this issue.”
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Homeland Security sued over illegal immigrant records
WASHINGTON -- Prince William County is suing the Department of Homeland Security for the second time over the release of records on illegal immigrants.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart says the county still has not received information on what happened to
more than 4,000 illegal immigrants turned over to the federal government since 2007.
They were transferred from a local jail to federal custody, but Stewart says
10 percent of them have been re-arrested in Prince William County for other crimes.
He considers them a "threat to the community."
"Every one of these individuals was convicted of a crime for which they were arrested, so these are not traffic violations," Stewart says.
The county first sued Homeland Security six months ago trying to get information on the release of Carlos Montano, an illegal immigrant accused of driving drunk in an accident that killed a Benedictine nun one year ago.
He was released from federal custody despite a previous DUI charge.
In 2007, Prince William county adopted a strict policy of checking the immigration status of everyone arrested.
Prince William county has tried to get information on those transferred inmates using the Freedom of Information Act, but Stewart says the response provided by Homeland Security was incomplete.
A spokeswoman for the agency says they do not comment on ongoing litigation.