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September 22, 2005
Police around the country are running criminal checks on refugees
MIDDLETOWN, RI -- Many Hurricane Katrina refugees left just about everything behind, but for some, criminal records are catching up with them.
Police around the country are running criminal checks on refugees, and finding many have arrest records.
In Rhode Island, police checked more than 100 people from New Orleans who arrived at a Navy housing complex. They say more than half had records. In South Carolina, state police checked every evacuee flown there by the government. Of 547 people checked, 301 had criminal records.
The state police in West Virginia say roughly half of the nearly 350 Hurricane Katrina victims had records.
Police say they are running the checks to ensure everyone's safety.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups oppose the checks, saying past criminal records don't necessarily mean people are a danger to their new communities.
Posted by Nealus at September 22, 2005 01:20 PM
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