OUR VIEW: Teamwork paid off during ICE sweep

Staff Editorial
Published: September 26, 2008

» SUMMARY: Local officials deserve credit for finding what appears to be an effective process for dealing with a   criminal element within the local illegal immigrant population.

While most of us slept, dozens of law enforcement officials including town officers, sheriff’s deputies, state agents, members of the regional Blue Ridge Narcotics Task Force and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fanned out across the area in search of criminals Tuesday morning.

Targeted were 19 people who are habitual offenders and gang members, as well as some who are in this country illegally again after being deported. It wasn’t a raid designed to pick up illegal aliens, it was designed to root out a criminal element.

When the early morning had turned to full day, they found five of the suspects, and now those five face justice.

In the grand scheme of things, five illegal aliens arrested is only a fraction of those possibly living in our area.

But what this does do is take people who have been deemed dangerous — people who are habitual offenders — off our streets.

You have to understand the operation to appreciate what was done.

Our law enforcement agencies deserve credit for formulating a strategy that attacks a problem and then sticking with it.
When illegal aliens get into the legal system, Commonwealth’s Attorney Gary Close, Culpeper Police Chief Scott Barlow and Sheriff Jim Branch provided ICE with documentation.

You could see their hard work in the mountain of paperwork that documented these suspects and others.

When working with a federal agency like ICE, you have to be diligent and build a strong paper trail. Local officials have done that well.

You get the feeling that this isn’t the last one of these raids we will see. They will stay the course, officials say.

Judging from the smaller than normal crowds of day laborers gathered along Bus. 29 in the days following the raid, these arrests may have sent the desired message: If you are in this country illegally and break the law here, you are not welcome.