Anti-ICE Protest Planned at County Government HQ This Afternoon

Protesters from a long list of advocacy groups are planning to spend a hot Thursday afternoon protesting ICE in Arlington.

The protest is set to kick off at 4 p.m. today (Thursday) in front of county government headquarters, at 2100 Clarendon Blvd in Courthouse.

The issue: police in Arlington notifying U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about undocumented suspects under certain circumstances, and the sheriff’s office releasing notifying ICE about jail inmates for whom a detainer was signed by a judge.

The group La ColectiVA has been leading the charge over the past few months to push Arlington County officials into putting an end to such practices. Today’s protest will also target the county’s relationship with Amazon, which hosts ICE and its contractors via its Amazon Web Services cloud computing arm.

From a press release:

Community members will rally today to demand Arlington County board members take immediate action to end collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Arlington. People who have faced detention and deportation because of the Arlington County Police Department’s collaboration with ICE, their loved ones, and supporting community members and organizations will gather at the Arlington County Government Center to call on county officials to immediately end all ties with ICE.

For months, community members have been demanding Arlington County police cut ties with ICE after multiple reports of migrants getting arrested by police and transferred to ICE for deportation proceedings, including the deportation of a long-time community member who was reported to ICE by an Arlington County police officer after a fender bender. Community members who have experienced this state violence will demand county officials introduce and pass county-wide policies to end and prevent collaboration and information sharing with ICE.

The protest is also part of a week of action to highlight the collaboration between law enforcement and Amazon, a major provider of tech for police and ICE. Protestors will highlight the Arlington County Police Department’s use of technology in deporting migrants, as well as the County’s partnerships with Amazon’s AWS, which hosts ICE and its contractors.

(The deported community member referenced above was a previously deported felon who provided false identification to police after a crash, according to an ACPD spokeswoman.)

The groups taking part in today’s action, according to the press release, include: La ColectiVA, DefundNoVAPolice, For Us Not Amazon, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, SURJ Northern Virginia, Justice for Muslims Collective, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, Sanctuary DMV, Our Revolution Arlington, Mijente, NoVA DSA, Legal Aid Justice Center, United Students Against Sweatshops Local 54, ShutDownDC, and Media Justice.

Expect signs with slogans like “#ICEoutofArlington,” “#EyesOnAmazon,” “#NoTechForICE,” and “#DefundNoVAPolice,” per the press release.