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ICE arrests people at the Annandale Immigration Court

The Annandale Immigration Court is located in this building at the corner of Little River Turnpike and Heritage Drive. [File photo]

Four people were arrested by ICE on June 10 inside the immigration court in Annandale.

They had been waiting for their cases to be heard, reports John Cano, a senior organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center.

The Annandale Immigration Court, located at 7619 Little River Turnpike, is a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.

As of yesterday, there was no information on whether the individuals taken by ICE had their cases dismissed or where they live. They could be from Annandale or other locations in Virginia, including the Virginia Beach area, Cano said.

“What we’re seeing is that folks are going to their court hearings and doing all the necessary steps to obey the law, and after that, they’re being apprehended,” he said.  

Related story: ICE agents arrest immigrants at Fairmont Gardens

People go to an immigration court for various reasons. They could be seeking asylum, for example, or they could be showing up for the first time to have their charges read to them.

“This is something we’re seeing at the national level,” Cano said. “Folks are going to their court hearings in order to win their case or have any type of adjustment in their case, and, unfortunately, ICE agents are arresting them at the court.”

Last week, activists with the New Virginia Majority recorded ICE agents arresting  11 people outside the immigration court in Sterling.

14 responses to “ICE arrests people at the Annandale Immigration Court

  1. If immigrants are showing up at court it demonstrates their willingness to work within the system. ICE simply wants an easy opportunity to boost their deportation numbers without due process. This is shameful. We need bipartisan immigration reform. This is not the best path forward.

  2. There aren’t enough facts in this article from which to draw any conclusions. One possible scenario is that the individuals in question were arrested in the courtroom after the government dismissed their cases. Without a case to defend, these individuals were subject to expedited removal. An expedited removal order cannot normally be appealed and carries a five-year reentry bar.

    1. Sparky – agree. Insufficient information in that snippet of a news article. Seen that too many times in online media, including the Annandale Today platform. Too many readers immediately get outraged and post their comments, incorrect as they sometimes are.

  3. We are living in a dangerous time. Ordinary people are being apprehended off the streets. How long before all dissenters are in prison camps? Shades of 1930’s Germany are appearing in America. God save the USA.

    1. These were not citizens. Please provide examples of ordinary, law-abiding citizens getting apprehended off the streets and sent away. Comparing the enforcement of immigration law, which the majority of Americans voted for as a top priority, to the rise of Nazism is Germany in the 30’s is laughable.

  4. Sounds like someone wrote another check that his low class, trashy behind cannot cash – so he’s going for “low hanging fruit” (for lack of better words) to cover his failure to locate all those hard criminals running their criminal enterprises. I’d say may God have mercy, but they deserve to go to hell. I pray for all innocent people who don’t deserve this.

  5. Fairfax County depends on immigrants to work our restaurants, clean our offices and hotels, mow our lawns, provide the best, most motivated students in our schools, do roofing and contracting, pay into Social Security, Medicare, income taxes, etc. I haven’t met a single immigrant doing countless jobs in my house who I didn’t respect for their incredible work ethic and sense of appreciation for being here. There isn’t a white dude within 100 miles who will do the jobs they are doing for such low pay. Trump said he would close the border and go after immigrants who were criminals. That’s okay. But to pull people out of a courthouse? It is truly pathetic what’s happened to our country. We have turned the United States into the country that every one left to come to because of despotic regimes. Our founders would be irate at how their system of checks and balances has been usurped by the far right wing despots and their Gestapo followers.

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