The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office will ignore requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold people in the county jail unless such a request comes with a warrant, the county announced Friday afternoon.
The new policy, which takes effect immediately, comes four days after Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) issued an opinion that ICE detainers are “merely a request.”
From an Arlington County press release:
The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office will no longer hold people in custody at the County Detention Facility based solely on a request to detain by the federal Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless ICE presents the Sheriff with a judicially issued warrant authorizing such detention, Sheriff Beth Arthur said today.
This change in policy is a result of a question from Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle to Attorney General Herring. In response to that question, on January 5, 2015, Attorney General Mark Herring issued an Advisory Opinion regarding the authority for law enforcement to hold a person in custody based on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detainer. Attorney General Herring stated:
“It is my opinion that an ICE detainer is merely a request. It does not create for a law enforcement agency either an obligation or legal authority to maintain custody of a prisoner who is otherwise eligible for immediate release from local or state custody.”
Arlington County Sheriff’s Office’s new policy is effective immediately.