King Concedes Sheriff Race, Calls On Hill To End ICE Partnership

DUMFRIES, VA — Joshua King, Democratic candidate for Prince William County sheriff, officially conceded to Sheriff Glen Hill, according to a statement released Thursday night. In the statement, King, the first Democrat in 16 years to run for Prince William sheriff, congratulated Hill on a "close but clean victory" and urged him to end the county's partnership with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

"287(g) is the Jim Crow of the new millennium, and we cannot build public trust between law enforcement and this majority-minority community so long as it exists," King said in the statement. "As chairman of the jail board, the sheriff has both a vote and a voice in ending this voluntary program."

The controversial program known as 287(g) allows the Prince William County Jail to deputize its officers as ICE agents. This allows officers to access federal databases and issue detainers to hold inmates for 48 hours past their release date so ICE can take them into custody if it chooses.

Prince William County Jail was the first in Virginia to sign memorandum of understanding, Virginia Public Radio reported. Currently, Prince William and Culpeper counties are the only localities in Virginia that hold 287(g) agreements with ICE.

The agreement became a point of contention among the Prince William sheriff candidates.

In his statement, King, an Iraq veteran and deputy sheriff with the Fairfax County Sheriff's Department, said the program has cost the community more than $2 million since its adoption in 2012.

"We are living in an era in which our country is putting brown children in cages. Now more than ever, it is our moral imperative to do everything we can to end discrimination against and the dehumanization of immigrants and people of color. With a Democratic majority, the Board of Supervisors can and should defund this program. There is no time for timidity," King said.

King ended his statement by saying his campaign was never about him; rather, it was about building trust between law enforcement and marginalized communities.

It was about meaningful criminal justice reform, so that 50 years from now our children aren’t talking about the same things Dr. King was talking about 50 years ago. And it was about the many, many people and organizations who believed in the progress we were fighting for," King said. "That fight does not end with this campaign.”

On Wednesday, Hill pulled ahead in the race, according to multiple reports, despite being down in the vote count on election night. Hill was 775 votes ahead of his Democratic challenger Josh King Wednesday afternoon, the Prince William Times reported.

Hill ran against King and Rhonda Dickson, a retired member of the Prince William County Police Department.

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