Fairfax County Sheriff Ends Deal With ICE To Hold Wanted Inmates

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA—Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid is ending an agreement to hold inmates wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement past their release date unless ICE has a court-issued criminal detainer. She notified ICE of the decision Monday, and the change will take effect May 23.

During the booking process, the Sheriff's Office checks residency status of anyone brought to jail. Fingerprints go into a state database, which local state and federal law enforcement agencies including ICE have access to. Under the agreement started in 2012, the Sheriff's Office has kept updates up to 48 hours past the release date to be turned over to ICE.

The Sheriff's Office will continue to cooperate with ICE investigations, which includes handing over an inmate to ICE up to five days before the scheduled release date. "We found it expedient to no longer have an agreement that required us to extend our resources beyond these obligations," said Kincaid in a statement. "We remain committed to our mission and mandate."

ThinkProgress recently reported that 663 inmates in Fairfax County jail had been handed over to ICE from January to October 2017. That's a number more than doubling from 258 in 2016. The majority of inmates targeted for ICE detainment in Fairfax County were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The media outlet, run by the progressive Center for American Progress Action Fund, obtained the data through a Freedom of Information Act request. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Fairfax County officials and immigration rights groups praised the decision.

“I am pleased with Sheriff Stacey Kincaid’s decision to take this step,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova said in a statement. "The Sheriff and her Deputies operate the County jail and are not federal immigration officials."

ACLU Virginia executive director Claire G. Gastañaga said of the sheriff's decision, "In doing so, she has taken a good first step in slowing the rising tide of over detention through capricious immigration enforcement. She is also saving the taxpayers of Fairfax from having to pay the excess costs incurred for housing federal detainees for ICE at the reduced rates in the agreement.

“This is a victory for the immigrant residents in Fairfax County,” said CASA’s Virginia director Michelle LaRue. “This is a step in the right direction and a way to restore trust within the immigrant community.”

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