Prince William Ends Immigration Enforcement Agreement With ICE

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — The Prince William County government opted Wednesday to let its program that deputized local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents expire as of June 30. The program had been supported by former Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R).

The Prince William County-Manassas jail board refused to consider a motion Wednesday night to renew its 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Prince William Sheriff Glenn Hill submitted the motion to enter into a new agreement to replace the existing agreement that is due to expire at the end of the month.

In supporting the continuation of the program, Hill said at the board meeting: “We’ve had no complaints about it."

But Prince William County Police Chief Barry Barnard said he is "not seeing any hard data where the 287 program has been shown to be the direct cause of any measurable crime reduction.”

“I do wonder if this program has run its course," Barnard said at the meeting.

Prince William initially entered into the 287(g) contract in 2007, when Stewart chaired the county board and Republicans held six of eight seats. The current agreement allowed local jail officials to check the immigration status of people arrested for a variety of crimes and turn those suspected of being in the country illegally over to federal agents for deportation proceedings.

Those who are identified as being in the country illegally can then be held under an ICE detainer request for up to 48 hours past their release date from jail.

Opponents of the program said it brought great fear to Prince William County and caused many immigrant residents to leave the county, one of the goals of Stewart and other supporters of the program.

At Wednesday's meeting, Virginia Del. Elizabeth Guzman said "as an immigrant myself I could tell you that we don't like this program. It creates a division and many people who look like me left the county because of that."

Since 2017, 2,639 county inmates have been transferred to ICE custody after their jail sentences finished, the Washington Post reported. The agreement’s expiration in Prince William County leaves Culpeper County as the only jurisdiction in Virginia to have a 287(g) agreement.

"A people-powered shift, community members and pro-immigrant leaders made countless calls to Jail Board members to make sure that Prince William County ended this anti-immigrant program that targets our community,” Luis Aguilar, Virginia Director of Latino immigrant group CASA, said in a statement. “This moment will go down in history as the one when years of work resulted in Prince William County vehemently rejecting hatred and racism and instead embracing diversity and inclusion.”