Loudoun County sheriff's new agreement with ICE concerns immigration advocates

The Loudoun County Sheriff s Office is the first Northern Virginia jail to enter into a special agreement with U S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to give federal agents more time to pick up people who have detainers but a few area groups are pushing back against the new protocol On Thursday Democrats and groups supporting the immigrant society protested the sheriff s decision to take a new step to assist ICE It concerns me because it s aligning our county and our law enforcement with what s going on on the national level and I think it could be very much a slippery slope explained Democratic Loudoun County Supervisor Juli Briskman Sheriff Mike Chapman reported the agreement with ICE will improve citizens safety but critics fear it will do the opposite saying it betrays the community trust I think there s much ado about not a whole lot here quite frankly Chapman commented Unlike a few other Northern Virginia jurisdictions Loudoun County jail representatives perpetually notify ICE when someone with an ICE detainer is about to be disclosed Under past guidelines ICE had to pick up that person on the day of release but often couldn t make it in time Typically they would come out for people who have committed the more serious crimes not something minor Chapman noted In the last six months of there were ICE detainers on Loudoun County inmates but ICE only picked up of them This year there have been detainers with picked up Under a new memo of agreement signed last week a small number of jail deputies about - will get special training from ICE and become warrant system officers It gives them the ability to serve the ICE detainer on the subject Instead of getting a day or less to show up ICE will get hours It s good for us because if we have to release them and they re a danger to our population that only adds to the lack of safety in the society Chapman mentioned So we need to make sure we re doing everything we can to keep our citizens safe and this will in fact help us quite a bit Opponents of the plan say it will make Loudoun County less safe increasing fear in the immigrant district and leading to a reluctance to account crime We are concerned that this will undermine trust between our neighborhood members and police explained Sandra Benavente of advocacy group Ayuda Ryan Ruzic a former prosecutor who s now a defense attorney worries with the longer holding time ICE will be able to pick up more people including those involved in minor offenses It makes a huge difference in the number of people that could be affected he noted And when the region understands that it ll make a difference in who reaches out to police and who s too afraid to The online ICE training of the deputies should be completed within a couple of weeks the sheriff reported Then the new plan will be enforced Get the D C area s top news and weather delivered to your inbox every morning Sign up for First Greater part our free newsletter