A Virginia sheriff announced on Tuesday that her office has dropped its voluntary cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a letter to various pro-immigration organizations, Beth Authur said her office will stop taking nonmandatory actions against illegal immigrants starting from Dec. 20.
“The ACSO (Arlington County Sheriff’s Office) will no longer recognize any ‘voluntary action’ requests from ICE nor place the information in our records management system,” she wrote. “The sheriff’s office will no longer contact ICE for any releases from our facility, to include felony charges.”
However, Arthur said her office will continue to follow Virginia law that requires sheriffs at correctional facilities and jails to ask if a person was born outside the United States or is a citizen of a country other than the United States when they are taken into custody for a felony offense….