Sheriff terminates agreement with ICE

The Adult Detention Center.

Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid announced Jan. 23 that the Sheriff’s Office will terminate its intergovernmental service agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That means the Sheriff’s Office will no longer hold people in the Adult Detention Center past their release date unless an ICE administrative request to detain is accompanied by a criminal detainer issued by a court. The new policy will take effect May 23.

“I am pleased with Sheriff Stacey Kincaid’s decision to take this step,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova. “The Sheriff and her deputies operate the county jail and are not federal immigration officials.”

Kincaid conveyed her decision to terminate the agreement to ICE officials in a meeting on Jan. 22 and also via a formal notice.

“We intend to comply with all federal obligations as they pertain to ICE,” says a statement issued by Kincaid. “The current contract is not necessary for us to do this as evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of localities in the commonwealth have no contractual arrangement. We found it expedient to no longer have an agreement that required us to extend our resources beyond these obligations. We remain committed to our mission and mandate.”

Operation and policy decisions regarding the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center fall under the authority of the sheriff, an elected constitutional officer, independent of the Board of Supervisors.

All sheriffs in Virginia are required by the Code of Virginia to determine the residency status of individuals arrested and brought to jail. During the booking process, fingerprints are automatically transmitted to a state database to which all local, state, and national law enforcement agencies, including ICE, have access.

Immigration advocates have long urged Kincaid to stop holding individuals sought by ICE beyond their release dates.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, director of the immigrant advocacy legal program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, called the termination of the agreement with ICE “a positive step in the right direction,” although he questioned why it couldn’t take effect immediately.

The agreement brings Fairfax County into compliance with the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which says you can’t hold someone without legal cause, Sandoval-Moshenberg says. It also conforms with the One Fairfax policy passed by the BoS, “which calls for the county to welcome our immigrant neighbors.”

“Local officials have no business enforcing federal law and doing ICE’s dirty work,” he says.

More needs to be done, however, he says. Immigration advocates want the Sheriff’s Office to stop allowing ICE to enter the jail and interrogate detainees.