Prince William County, Va. — Prince William County filed a second lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, citing the agency has not released information about illegal immigrants county police arrested and turned over to the agency.
The lawsuit comes after the county filed a similar lawsuit in March after DHS refused to release information about Carlos Martinelly Montano, an illegal immigrant charged in a alcohol-related traffic crash last year that killed a nun and injured two others. Montano, an illegal immigrant, had been arrested before in Manassas and turned over to DHS.
Prince officials say several Freedom of Information Act requests from the county to DHS asking for information on criminal records of illegal aliens turned over from the county to DHS prior to 2008 went unanswered.
“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. I am disappointed in the lack of cooperation and transparency from DHS and I am frustrated with dismissive attitude of Congress, which has failed to compel DHS to turn over this information,” said Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart in a press release.
County officials say Montano had been previously convicted for DUI and turned over to DHS for deportation from the U.S. prior to the crash involving the nuns. The prompted the Board of Supervisors to ask about the status of illegal immigrants turned over to DHS to know if they were still in the community.
To date, officials in Prince William County have turned over more than 4,000 suspects who are illegally in this country to DHS.
County officials on Thursday did not say what the status of the first lawsuit filed earlier this year is.
