A supervisor in Fairfax County, Virginia, is demanding that county leaders remove sanctuary county policies for illegal immigrants, as the sheriff says she will protect the rights of all people, regardless of immigration status.
Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid said she will not honor ICE detainers, saying in a letter obtained by WJLA that ICE must obtain a judicial warrant, including for violent offenders who are in the U.S. illegally.
Kincaid references former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring's opinion from 2015 that says ICE detainers are only requests. She also cites the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures and the Fourteenth Amendment right of equal protection under the law with due process.
"The status of a person as an inmate or an undocumented immigrant does not diminish their right to be free from unlawful seizure, nor does it eliminate their access to due process and equal protection," the sheriff wrote.
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Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity told WJLA that Kincaid's "reliance on the Attorney General's letter is a cop-out."
"You clearly got [Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman] doing it and keeping his community safe," he said, referring to honoring ICE detainers. "I think our residents expect the same from our sheriff. I think they're failing their duty. Because when you've got repeat violent offenders being released into our community, whether that's by the magistrates, whether that's by the Commonwealth's Attorney or whether that's by the sheriff, that's just unacceptable. We need to keep violent offenders in jail or get them out of our country."
Chapman said his office immediately notifies ICE when his deputies arrest people who are in the U.S. illegally and that he honors ICE detainers, according to WJLA.
Kincaid also said the courts and the commonwealth's attorney have, in some cases, released suspects on bond after charges for violent crimes.
"In other cases, the Commonwealth’s Attorney elected to nolle prosequi, or dismiss, the charges altogether," she wrote.
Herrity, addressing Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano’s record, said U.S. citizens who are violent offenders are treated worse than illegal immigrants who are violent offenders.
Descano has said his office will not work with ICE on civil immigration enforcement, citing his commitment to "improve community safety, promote confidentiality, restore trust, preserve limited resources, and ensure all have equal protection of the law."
"Prosecutors evaluate cases on an individual basis and take into account a wide range of factors when determining the best path forward to build community safety," Descano's office told WJLA in response to Kincaid's letter. "Part of that work is determining when it is improper to go forward with a case, which can be due to the strength of the evidence, availability of witnesses, or in coordination with other charges the defendant may be facing. The office's bond policy directs prosecutors to make hold/release recommendations based only on dangerousness and flight risk, and not to consider other factors."
Additionally, the Trust Policy, which the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors passed in 2021, bars Fairfax County police from alerting ICE when a person who is in the country illegally is arrested.
Herrity, who voted against the Trust Policy, said he wants the Board of Supervisors to eliminate the policy.
"I think it hurts our police department’s ability to actually do their job and get violent offenders off the street. We're no longer a part of the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force because of the Trust Policy. It hurts their ability to do their job," he said. "Any reason that we are releasing violent criminals back into our community needs to be revisited, everything from the 2020 legislation to the Commonwealth Attorney, to the Sheriff's policies."
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has had 725 undocumented immigrants in jail over the past year, but only three were transferred to ICE, according to WJLA.
