Gov. Glenn Youngkin has voiced disapproval over the Arlington County Board’s decision this week to limit police interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The County Board voted Tuesday to bar the Arlington County Police Department from initiating contact with ICE. In a post on X yesterday (Thursday), the governor criticized the change, calling it a “dereliction of duty.”
The Arlington County Board’s latest action to prohibit Arlington Police from any cooperation with ICE, even regarding violent MS-13 gang members who are illegally here, is dereliction of duty and a betrayal of the oath they swore to protect their constituents. At what point did…
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) May 15, 2025
The now-removed Section 7 of the board’s Trust Policy allowed ACPD to notify ICE in the event of cases with undocumented immigrants that involved violent felonies, gang-related criminal offenses, terrorism and human trafficking.
In an email to ARLnow this afternoon (Friday), Board Chair Takis Karantonis responded to Youngkin’s post:
“Public safety is a top priority for Arlington County and the County Board. We encourage all residents to report crime if they experience or see it. The County has and continues to follow all state and federal laws. If a person is arrested for felony offenses their arrest is added to databases which ICE can already access.
The revisions to the Trust Policy prohibit voluntary—not mandatory—interactions with ICE. Neither state nor federal law require the policies previously outlined in Sections 7 and 8 of our Trust Policy. These changes do not impact the legal process nor ACPD’s ability to make arrests. If a crime is reported, ACPD will respond.
Removal of sections 7 and 8 does not impede the already established means by which federal law officers can conduct immigration enforcement.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Karantonis emphasized that the county will always comply with federal law, “under all circumstances.”
“What we cannot do — what we don’t want to do — is to enforce immigration on behalf of, or for, the federal government,” Karantonis said.
Still, state officials like Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares announced criticisms over social media, referring to the vote as “negligence” and “a betrayal of the oath they swore to protect their constituents.”
The decision came after a period of record-high rates of ICE interaction initiated by ACPD since January, along with weeks of increased pressure from local advocates to remove Section 7.
As of late last month, ACPD had initiated contact with ICE a total of 17 times this year — the department’s highest rate of contact since the county began publishing the data in 2022.
On Tuesday, Karantonis said the decision was influenced by “a significant decrease of trust, especially of our local immigrant community, to contact law enforcement when it was really necessary.”
The board also spoke out in reference to what Karantonis called an “ongoing erosion of the constitutional right to due process” by the federal government, in a message on the Trust Policy’s webpage.
In support of the measure, some board members invoked the high-profile detainment of Arlington resident Badar Khan Suri and the erroneous deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
“What’s happening to others across our country who are being silenced for exercising their constitutional rights to free speech is equally alarming,” board member JD Spain, Sr., said. “These are not isolated incidents, my friends. They reflect a troubling pattern from the administration that we know too much about right now.”
Meanwhile, grassroots advocacy group La ColectiVA — whose organizers have long criticized the Trust Policy since its 2022 inception — lauded the decision Tuesday, calling it a “monumental step forward” for residents’ safety, especially those “at great risk for targeting, profiling, and criminalization.”
This story has been updated to include a response from Board Chair Takis Karantonis, which was sent post-publication.
