Immigration Debate Tackles Local Police Role In Federal Issue

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA -- Fairfax County officials held a community forum Saturday to discuss what role local government and police play in ramped up federal immigration enforcement.

Panelists included Chairman Sharon Bulova of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Chief of Police Ed Roessler, Fairfax County Sheriff Mark Sites, Claire Gastañaga, executive director of the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union, Stefan Mascoll of Fairfax County Public Schools and Meredith McKeen of Northern Virginia Family Services.

The county has been in the spotlight for cooperating with federal immigration policies. In February, an ICE raid outside a Fairfax County church shelter drew a sharp community response and the attention of Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

The forum aimed to clarify what local government can and cannot do. Bulova said that there has been confusion over local police's role in immigration enforcement, since ICE badges can identify agents as "police."

Roessler said local police work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in criminal cases, not in civil cases like overstaying a visa. Roessler said that information of those sent to the county's detention center goes into a national database, which ICE monitors. ICE and the FBI also assist in arrests involving gang activity, which has rocked the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.

At the same time, Roessler said that police do not check residency during encounters with residents without reasonable suspicion or probable cause of a crime. "When it comes to crimes like domestic violence, we need great trust and confidence, regardless of your immigration status," he said. "If you're a victim of a crime, we're here to help you."

Sheriff Sites said under a new agreement with ICE, the jail will hold an individual up to 48 hours after their local sentence ends. Effective April 4, the agreement lowered the the maximum holding time from 72 hours. If ICE does not take the individual within the 48 hours, he or she is released. Sites said from Jan. 1 to March 31, 85 individuals were held beyond the release time but were released up to three days later.

Despite law enforcement's limited partnerships with ICE, law enforcement are not expected to become trained to serve as ICE agents. Bulova said the Board of Supervisors would not adopt a policy allowing police to act as immigration officials, and Sites said the sheriff's office refused training for correctional officers.

The meeting comes after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors passed a diversity and inclusion resolution on April 4. The statement clarifies that immigration enforcement is not local police's responsibility, although they will work with federal officials on criminal cases when required.

Not everyone agreed that the county was doing enough on protecting immigrants.

Gastañaga argued that a resolution wasn't enough, to cheers from the audience. In March, the Virginia ACLU had joined with the Fairfax County NAACP in opposing the county's cooperation with national immigration policies. Gastañaga suggested nine policies for the county to adopt. Among those is for county agencies to not cooperate with ICE without a judicial warrant and clear identification on ICE uniforms. Bulova said she was open to discussing these suggestions.

Hosting the forum was the county's Communities of Trust Committee, created after the events in Ferguson, Mo. to foster positive relationships between public safety agencies and the community.

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