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Immigration officials "swamped" with calls from police

05:39 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Immigration officials tell 13News they are swamped with calls from police after they've stopped illegal aliens.

ICE officials say the uproar from FOX News anchor Bill O'Reilly is at least partly responsible for the shift.

An admitted illegal immigrant, Alfredo Ramos, is charged with crashing his car into another while driving drunk, killing two Virginia Beach teenagers in March.

O'Reilly charged that Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf shoulders much of the blame because of the police department's policy stating officers shouldn't ask the immigration status of people arrested on misdemeanor charges.

He also blamed Chesapeake Judge Colon Whitehurst, who had previously fined Ramos and suspended his license for a DUI in that city.

Watch the report

Alicia Bobulinski Fernandez's organization, Making a Difference Foundation, works with immigrants, helping them adjust to American life. She says the crackdown could discourage legal immigrants from reporting crimes.

"You're going to think twice, 'Are they going to question me as to whether I have a legal status here,'" she said.

None of the police departments 13News questioned said there were any new policies encouraging more reporting.

Immigration officials say it's individual officers making the decision to pick up the phone. However, they say despite the increased calls, they are not responding in greater force because their staffing levels have not changed. It's up to a dispatch center in Vermont to decide which cases are highest priority.