ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A dispute over how closely the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office should work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is fueling tension between city leaders and law enforcement.

The Alexandria City Council has asked the sheriff’s office to stop cooperating with ICE, though both sides say the department is not actively helping federal agents detain people in the community.

“Not in any way is the sheriff’s office working with ICE to pull people off the street, no absolutely not,” Councilmember Canek Aguirre said. “I want to be very clear about that and that I completely agree with the sheriff he is not collaborating with ICE. It’s just this disagreement of whether or not to turn people over that he has in custody.”

At the center of the dispute is language in Virginia Code stating that when an undocumented person is incarcerated, the sheriff “may” transfer custody to ICE upon receiving a detainer. Aguirre said the wording matters.

“I’m not a lawyer, but between ‘may’ and ‘shall’, ‘shall’ means you will do it and ‘may’ means, in my mind, that it will be voluntary,” he said.

According to the sheriff’s office, from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31 of this year, 1,552 people were arrested and charged in Alexandria. 

Of those, 40 were transferred to ICE. 

They also shared data, showing how many people have been transferred from the jail to ICE in recent years. They say the majority of those in jail, were arrested for serious crimes.

Sheriff Sean Casey said in a statement, “I have said many times that I do not and will not enforce immigration law in our community.” 

Casey said he refused the governor’s directive to work with ICE, ended a contract with the agency, and allows ICE to take custody of someone only if there is a federal arrest warrant.

But the term “federal arrest warrant” is where things get tricky. The sheriff’s office confirmed that both administrative and judicial warrants fall under the federal arrest warrant category.

According to the National Immigration Law Center, a judicial warrant is issued by a judicial court and signed by a judge or magistrate. An administrative warrant is issued by a federal agency, like DHS, and can be signed by an immigration judge or immigration officer.

“Different attorney generals have given differing opinions of what the legality is, but there’s still the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant,” Aguirre said. “A judicial warrant of course you must comply, you shall comply. But with an administrative warrant, you may comply, so I think that’s the difference that is separating the sheriff and the council right now.”

He added that ICE has maintained a presence in Alexandria under both Republican and Democratic administrations, but he believes the agency’s approach has changed.

“They’re really just terrorizing communities because they try and claim that they’re targeting criminals,” Aguirre said. “But just for the fact of crossing the border, they’re calling people criminals just for speaking a different language. They’re calling people criminals just for looking a different way.”

Aguirre said the council wants the sheriff’s office to comply with judicial warrants and to recognize that administrative warrants are voluntary. “I think the solution that we’re calling for is to comply with judicial warrants and with administrative warrants,  you know, it’s voluntary,” he said.

He said the council hopes to continue discussions with the sheriff’s office in the coming weeks.

Here’s the “collective statement from the council” that  Alexandria Mayor Aliyah Gaskins read at the end of the Alexandria City Council meeting Wednesday:

We are made stronger by the many immigrants and immigrant communities that reside, work, go to school, and socialize in Alexandria. While this council remains committed to ensuring the public safety of our residents and to Alexandria as a safe place to live, work and play that it is today, supporting and safeguarding our immigrant communities while maintaining public safety are not mutually exclusive goals. The city remains firmly committed to upholding the Constitution and the rule of law while ensuring that all residents, including members of our immigrant communities, are protected and treated with fairness and dignity.

Given the current federal administration’s views towards immigration enforcement and tactics of fear, intimidation, and lack of due process employed currently by ICE, the city council finds it necessary to affirm that we do not support any voluntary participation by the sheriff’s office in ICE immigration procedures. 

While we acknowledge our sheriff’s department is not participating in other active enforcement options available to them, given the current federal administration’s views towards immigration enforcement and tactics of fear, intimidation, and lack of due process employed currently by ICE, the city council finds it necessary to affirm that we do not support any voluntary participation by the sheriff’s office in ICE immigration procedures. 

While we acknowledge our sheriff’s department is not participating in other active enforcement options available to them, we call upon the sheriff to cease his transfer of persons in his custody in response to ICE administrative detainers and warrants. We ask that he join the sheriffs in Arlington and Fairfax who complete transfers and who only complete transfers in compliance with judicial warrants. As a council, each of us has shared individually and collectively that we disagree with the sheriff’s current practice.

We recognize that the sheriff’s office is an independently elected constitutional office possessing the discretion to determine whether to honor such administrative warrants. We also recognize that this program has been in place under previous Democratic and Republican presidential administrations and prior sheriffs. We do not allege that the sheriff’s practice is unconstitutional, though we note that it is voluntary.

Given the ICE tactics we have observed already here in Alexandria and around the country, we ask him to reconsider his current practice and cease any transfer of inmates inmates pursuant to ICE administrative warrants and detainers. In the meantime, as a council, we will continue to stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors and explore policies to protect the safety of all in our community. Thank you.