Northern Virginia county becomes latest jurisdiction to limit police cooperation with ICE

Arlington County is the latest local jurisdiction to prohibit law enforcement from communicating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement about illegal immigrants residing in the county.

The Northern Virginia county's adoption of its new "Trust Policy" comes after the recent arrest of an illegal immigrant charged with raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl in Ohio.

Immigrant rights advocates have been pushing local lawmakers to stop sharing information with federal immigration authorities. Local news reports have featured photos of demonstrators holding "Melt ICE" and "ICE Out of Arlington" signs at Arlington County Board meetings.

"Arlington County shall not enforce Federal Immigration law," read the full policy adopted on July 19. "Officers shall not request identification documents for the purpose of establishing a person's immigration status or for immigration enforcement purposes. Failure to provide identification shall not constitute a criminal offense."

The full policy identifies certain criminal activity that would result in illegal immigrants being reported to ICE, including violent crimes, street gang affiliation, terrorism and human trafficking.

According to the Washington Post, the Arlington Sheriff's Department said that the "county jail can and does let ICE know when it is about to release someone with a detainer who has been arrested for a felony."

Arlington, however, "does not honor ICE detainers, which are requests from the agency to hold undocumented inmates beyond their length of jail time" until federal authorities arrive to take them into custody, the Post reported.

Just the News followed up with Arlington's public affairs office and asked for specific examples of the violent crimes that would permit law enforcement to report an illegal immigrant to ICE. The public affairs office was also asked if the county jail will honor ICE detainers and hold illegal immigrants arrested for those categories of crimes until ICE arrives. A spokesperson said they had forwarded the questions to the sheriff and chief of police, who did not respond before press time.

A neighboring jurisdiction, Fairfax County, was criticized by local and state Republicans for becoming a sanctuary city by refusing to cooperate with ICE in 2018.

According to a report from September 2020, Fairfax County denied over 900 ICE detainer requests over a two-year period.