The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office has turned over 35 inmates in the city jail to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this year to date, and a local group wants the practice to stop.
Advocacy group Grassroots Alexandria says that the Sheriff is cooperating with ICE, and risks losing the respect of his community. In contrast, the Sheriff’s Office says it must transfer inmates in compliance with federal law. The number of Alexandria inmates transferred to ICE custody was recently revealed in a July 15 Freedom of Information Act request from Grassroots Alexandria.
- 2012 — 147 inmates
- 2013 — 119 inmates
- 2014 — 96 inmates
- 2015 — 50 inmates
- 2016 — 56 inmates
- 2017 — 105 inmates
- 2018 — 121 inmates
- 2019 — 89 inmates
- 2020 — 35 inmates
- 2021 — 11 inmates
- 2022 — 12 inmates
- 2023 — 33 inmates
- 2024 — 43 inmates
- 2025 — 35 inmates
ICE also arrested two women from El Salvador in the city in February, and the action was only publicly reported by the department in March and April.
“The key issue here is ICE issues detainers, and that is a form filled out by an ICE agent,” said Jonathan Krall, a Grassroots Alexandria steering committee member. “It’s legal to transfer someone to ICE for a detainer, but it’s not required. If a judge issues a warrant, it’s required to obey a judicial warrant. When the sheriff obeys an ICE detainer, he is behaving legally, but he’s not required to do so.”
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On Instagram, Grassroots Alexandria is urging the city to refuse cooperation with the federal agency.
“Most Alexandrians respect law enforcement, but not ICE,” Grassroots Alexandria says. “ICE does not respect due process. ICE deserves neither cooperation nor respect. To live up to our own standards, Alexandria must refuse to surrender people to ICE without being forced to do so by a judge. If Sheriff Casey continues to cooperate with ICE, when his hand is not forced by a judicial warrant, he risks losing the respect of his community.”
The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office released the following statement:
The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office is a public safety agency committed to ensuring the safety and security of the diverse communities we proudly serve. The Sheriff’s Office operates the Alexandria Adult Detention Center (ADC) and complies with local, state, and federal laws.
Sheriffs in Virginia are required by law to communicate with ICE. Code of Virginia §19.2-83.2 and 53.1-218 directs all Sheriff’s to determine the citizenship of individuals arrested on felony charges and share this information with ICE as specified in these code sections. In addition, during the booking process fingerprints taken from individuals are automatically transmitted to a state database to which all local, state, and national law enforcement agencies, including ICE, have access.
The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office, in accordance with applicable laws, is obligated to comply with all lawful arrest warrants issued by law enforcement agencies. Pursuant to Virginia Code §53.1-220.2, the Sheriff’s Office transfers custody of an inmate to ICE on their scheduled release date, provided ICE has submitted a lawful warrant.
We will not transfer custody based on an ICE detainer alone and will not hold anyone longer than their scheduled release date for ICE. This policy applies to all federal, state, and local inmates in our custody. This transfer of custody of inmates to ICE is not new and has remained consistent through several different presidential administrations. It is important to note that The Sheriff’s Office does not participate in any immigration enforcement in the community and will not be entering into the 287(g) program which allows local law enforcement to become deputized to support federal immigration.
Further, although the Sheriff’s Office has a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal inmates, ICE has not been permitted to use it for immigration violations since 2018 and at the request of community advocacy groups in 2022, Sheriff Casey had ICE formally removed from the federal contract.
The Sheriff’s Office is active in outreach efforts for our immigrant neighbors and works hard to build relationships and maintain trust. You can also review the, Sheriff’s Office Statement on Immigration Concerns | City of Alexandria, VA and the City of Alexandria’s Immigration Information and Resources for further information.
In April, Casey detailed his office’s relationship with ICE in an interview with ALXnow. See his response below.
We have a contract with the United States Marshals Service to house federal pre-trial inmates in our detention facility, and that contract has been in existence since the jail was first constructed back in 1985, and it was in effect in 1987 when the jail opened. The jail was built to be a federal and a local jail. The federal government gave a city $2.2 million to make the jail bigger when it was being constructed, so they could enter into this agreement… As law enforcement professionals, we have maintained and managed our relationship in a very positive way through every administration that’s come through since 1987, and that good relationship continues.
In 2007-08, ICE was added to that contract. ICE was allowed to hold individuals who were arrested on immigration violations inside the detention center. During the first Trump administration, Dana (Lawhorne) was the Sheriff. We had a number of community conversations on this, and he made the decision that I supported at the time that we’re not going to allow ICE to use our facility to hold individuals when arrested on immigration violations. In 2022 when I took office… we removed ICE from the contract. Now, anybody who’s held in our jail is via the United States Marshals Service, which is the sheriff for the federal government. If the FBI, DEA, and ATF arrest somebody in this Eastern District, they send them to us as a Marshal’s prisoner. So, the individuals ICE is arresting for immigration violations in the community are not coming to our jail.
