Surge of illegal immigrants causes changes for Frederick

‘‘There is no way to know the number of illegal immigrants, but the illegal population is coming here, mostly from Northern Virginia,” said Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins (R). ‘‘...We’re going to shoot them right back.”

Using numbers from the Census Bureau, USA Today in August ranked Frederick County eighth in the nation as the fastest percentage of growth among Hispanics from 2000-2006 among counties that have a population of more than 100,000.

Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith (R) said this week he has made it a priority to hire staff who speak Spanish to handle the significant increase in court cases involving illegal immigrants.

He said his office has one Spanish interpreter on staff, and he is looking for more.

‘‘It’s now an every-week occurrence,” Smith said. ‘‘There is no doubt we’ve seen an increase. We’ve seen an increase in the need for Spanish interpreters. It used to be that three or four times a year we would call for a court-appointed interpreter. Now [an interpreter] is in the courthouse every single day.”

Jenkins also announced this week that he plans to meet with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday to learn whether his office can begin deporting illegal immigrants.

Under the federal Criminal Alien Program, sheriff deputies will receive training from the bureau to determine if the individual they arrest is in the country legally. If they are found to be here illegally, deputies can begin the deportation process.

Without the program, ‘‘we cannot determine their immigration status,” the sheriff said. ‘‘They do their time here [at detention center] and are released back to the general public.”

Since July, the bureau has been paying the county to house at the Frederick County Detention Center illegal immigrants charged with crimes in neighboring states.

The county charges the federal government $83 per day for each illegal immigrant held at the detention center, making a $13 profit on each inmate. It costs Frederick County $70 per day to house an inmate.