ICE Agents Will Screen Immigrants at Fairfax Jail

County Gets Video Teleconferencing Equipment, but Sheriff's Officers Won't Do Agency's Work

By Tom Jackman and Sondhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 27, 2008; PW08



The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office has been rejected for training and authorization to process illegal immigrants into the federal immigration system, but a better option has emerged, Sheriff Stan G. Barry said.

Instead of training jail officers to be deputies, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is installing video teleconferencing equipment in the Fairfax jail. ICE agents outside the jail will interview and screen illegal immigrants for possible deportation, Barry and agency officials said last week.

Last year, Barry applied to have Fairfax jail deputies trained in ICE's 287 (g) program, which would have allowed them not only to check for immigration warrants for possible illegal immigrants but also to enter newly suspected violators into the immigration system. After months of waiting, Fairfax recently learned it had been rejected for the program.

Barry told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors that the new arrangement with ICE will be better than 287 (g) because it will not require the county to devote staff members, funding or jail space to the program.

Instead, he said, the program draws a bright line between the role of immigration authorities and county deputies. Federal authorities told Barry they will monitor the jail's population from their offices, investigating the immigration status of select inmates and promptly removing for deportation those who are determined to be in the country illegally. Barry said the jail is being wired for the new equipment necessary for the program.

"It looks like it will be a win-win situation, in that we will be able to identify illegal immigrants who commit crimes in Fairfax County and get them in the process of deportation, and it won't cost Fairfax County a dime," Barry said.

The sheriff said the 287 (g) program would have cost about $500,000 annually.

Christopher Shanahan, acting assistant director of enforcement operations for ICE, said the agency was installing video equipment in several jails around the country for several reasons. In addition to allowing ICE agents to interview suspected illegal immigrants directly, the teleconferencing will allow detainees to appear in immigration court without having to be taken there and will allow their attorneys to meet with them without going to the jail.

Shanahan said that he could not explain why Fairfax was rejected for the 287 (g) program but that ICE would now have a greater presence in the Fairfax jail, by video and by having agents visit the jail more regularly.

Although some county jails have complained that they are holding many immigration detainees, Shanahan said, "we've begun to work with Fairfax to schedule regular transfers of the illegal aliens." Details have not been finalized.

County supervisors noted that the program does not involve the Fairfax police department and that officers will not be checking or inquiring about immigration status in any case. Police Chief David M. Rohrer has long sought to maintain good relations with the county's growing immigrant communities by staying out of the heated immigration debate, to keep information and cooperation flowing between residents and officers.

When illegal immigrants commit crimes, Supervisor Sharon Bulova (D-Braddock) said, "they are not welcome here."

Bulova said she endorsed the video teleconferencing program because "this is far preferable to having sheriff's deputies doing ICE's job." Bulova said neighboring Prince William County spends more than $3 million for its aggressive anti-immigration policies in the police and sheriff's departments.

"I think we all want to see immigration laws enforced. That has been our position here for as long as this has been a concern to the community," Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) said.

Hudgins and others did not object to Barry's partnership with ICE. It "gives me some comfort" to know that the program would only apply to those who had been arrested for a crime and taken to the jail, Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason) said.

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