Tejada Responds to HB 570 (cont.)

Arlington County Board Member J. Walter Tejada responded to a new Virginia state law that allows local police to detain some illegal immigrants, according to the Washington Post. Tejada declared that "This is the kind of law that makes a vulnerable community even more vulnerable. Immigrant communities are already reluctant to contact the police if they are victims of a crime or a witness to a crime. Now it will make the communities even more hesitant."

The paper noted that Tejada has been holding forums to educate Latinos on the law. The law, House Bill 570, "provides that all law-enforcement officers have the authority to enforce immigration laws and that a law-enforcement officer may, in the course of acting upon reasonable suspicion that an individual has committed or is committing a crime, arrest the individual without a warrant upon receiving confirmation from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs."