The Trust Policy benefits immigrants
Immigrants shouldn’t be afraid to call the police if they’re a victim or a witness to a crime, says Karol Escalante, director of immigrant community affairs for the Fairfax County government.
That’s because of the Trust Policy approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2021, which affirms the county’s agreement not to report people to federal immigration officials.
Escalante explained the Trust Policy at a meeting of the Mason Police District’s Community Advisory Committee last week at the Thomas Jefferson Library.
The Trust Policy is important, she said, because no one should be afraid to call 911 if there’s a fire in their home or should avoid taking advantage of a food bank or getting their children vaccinated for fear of being turned in to ICE and potentially being deported.
“It is not an appropriate use of Fairfax resources to facilitate enforcement of federal immigration law, which is the sole responsibility of the federal government,” the Trust Policy states. “Cooperation with civil administrative immigration enforcement is especially problematic because it lacks the constitutional protections of criminal law, and ICE civil detention requests are frequently issued in error.”
The policy prohibits county employees from asking people to disclose their citizenship or immigration status unless required by state or federal law, judicial warrant, court order, or subpoena.
Escalante, an immigrant herself, from Honduras, describes her job as supporting the immigrant community. “We want community members to feel comfortable calling the police if they are a victim,” she says, “and we want to ensure we don’t collect unnecessary information.”
It’s not only recent immigrants who need help, she said. Some people who’ve been here for a long time don’t know about the services available to them.
Related story: Culmore residents air concerns about crime
As part of the One Fairfax team in the county executive’s office, Escalante reaches out to county agencies to make sure their programs and services are accessible, which entails looking at language access and cultural competency.
Immigrants are big contributors to the local economy, she said, noting that 70 percent of the immigrants in Fairfax County are entrepreneurs.
“They are taxpayers and entitled to programs and services,” she said. “We want to provide opportunities for them to thrive.”
Immigration to Fairfax County is stable for the time being, she said, although there has been an uptick in people from Venezuela and Nicaragua seeking asylum.
The CAC and the Mason Police District are holding meetings in communities throughout Mason District in an effort to draw more residents. In December, the group met in Culmore. The most recent meeting, at the Thomas Jefferson Library, was aimed at attracting residents of the nearby Monticello Apartments. That didn’t happen because the complex’s management wouldn’t allow the CAC to put up flyers.
The lawlessness is astounding. Good thing my parents aren’t alive to see what is happening in our area.
I agree. Good thing. Share more why you believe there are less laws? Because there’s more diversity?
Because a growing percentage of people can’t seem to behave, we as a society have decided to change laws and enforce fewer laws to accommodate the misbehavior, rather than insisting the existing standard is upheld.
We blamed the disparity on the police, who were simply responding to the misbehavior.
Once we castrated the police, they stopped enforcing the laws like they once did.
Even if they do enforce the laws, the penalties for criminals are far less severe. Ergo (as common sense dictates) more crime follows fewer and less stringent disincentives.
In short, we lowered our standards. This is a common theme across the country, not only with crime but with schools, job requirements, the military.
And, as a commenter stated yesterday, here we are.
Here we are…. Well said
This comment is preposterous.
The downfall of America is because we don’t want police to murder unarmed minorities.
You people have no idea what America is about.
This is a conspiracy theory – that cops are murdering unarmed minorities. Take each well-publicized case and analyze it. You’ll see with extremely few exceptions that the police use of forced were legally and ethically justified. You must not have ever carried a gun for a living.
Hmm, turns out many people DO have an idea about what America is about. And its not you JM.
I share this sentiment, and hope we can agree on a standard to live by. Selective enforcement undermines the entire system. Police and supervisors should not be in the legislative business. Know what gun violence is called in the UK? Knife violence. Same common denominator.
Thank you so much for reporting this important information.
I for one was pleasantly shocked and amazed to learn that:
“Immigrants are big contributors to the local economy, she said, noting that 70 percent of the immigrants in Fairfax County are entrepreneurs.”
After reading all these news reports about angry residents who live in big cities complaining about the large and growing number of immigrants who have moved to their cities, complaining that these new immigrants are taking up so much resources from so-called American citizens; my heart was filled with joy to learn that so many of the immigrants to Fairfax County have been successful!!!
Yes, One Fairfax for the win!!! Boo to all the negative naysayers who enjoy commenting on this blog.
Yes, individuals that lawfully immigrate are great contributors to our community, state & country. They sacrificed greatly to follow the law to get here & make a positive impact for themselves and our community. I support more and easier legal paths for people to lawfully immigrate to the USA. Those that come to our country & community illegally have already committed a crime. It also puts them in a constant danger of exploitation by gangs and because of that person’s illegal status they are far less likely to have access to many advantages – such as legal banking, legal work and so on. I agree no one should be afraid to call police or firefighters, but when you come here already breaking the law it makes sense why such a person would not do so – even if Fairfax Board of Supervisors wants to look the other way.
I concur with JTR. If we don’t like the laws, we can elect representatives to change the laws we don’t like. Unless and until then, uphold the laws. To me it is quite a simple proposition. I will add that I emphasize with illegal immigrants on a human level. If I was in their predicament I would like do the same thing. That doesn’t make it right as a matter of policy.
“Entrepreneurs” likely means standing by Home Depot because they can’t legally work. Have you seen the tens or hundreds of people standing in Home Depot parking lots in fairfax county?