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 — 55 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.”…