Fairfax County, Virginia, is third-most prolific sanctuary jurisdiction, study finds

Virginia’s Fairfax County ranks third on a new list of sanctuary jurisdictions, with the county jail having refused to cooperate on more than 1,150 deportation “detainer” requests from the Department of Homeland Security over the past 2½ years.

Prince William County in Virginia also ranks high at No. 24 on the list, which the Center for Immigration Studies compiled from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

Santa Clara County, California, led the way with nearly 3,000 declined detainers, followed by Cook County Jail in Illinois and the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

California counties dominate the list’s top 30, with more than 13,000 declined detainers. Some other surprises include Hennepin County in Minnesota and Teton County in Wyoming.

The list identified 72 Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation targets who had homicide convictions or charges but were released.

The Illinois River Correctional Center led the way with six. Santa Clara County also had six, split between two jails.

Fairfax County tallied two such releases, according to the data. In Maryland, the Baltimore County Detention Center, the Gaithersburg Police Department and the Howard County Detention Center were listed as having released ICE targets with homicide records.

Detainers are requests from ICE to other law enforcement agencies to notify deportation officers before an ICE target is released from their custody and, if possible, to hold the target for up to 48 hours for pickup.

In recent years, jurisdictions have begun resisting to varying degrees. Some will notify but refuse to hold beyond the regular release time. Other jurisdictions refuse notification. Some will cooperate on more serious cases, particularly when there’s a conviction, but refuse cooperation in cases they deem not serious.

Jessica Vaughan, the author of the study, said some jurisdictions appeared on the list even though they are in states with laws banning noncooperation.

“Sanctuary policies continue to undermine public safety in many communities, despite numerous tragedies, due to misunderstanding of immigration enforcement or, more likely, for political reasons,” Ms. Vaughan said. “They should face consequences for putting the public at risk.”

The Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office said it couldn’t verify the “ambiguous data” reported by the Center for Immigration Studies.

“Without seeing the referenced records and without knowing the context implied by ‘releases’ and ‘declined detainers,’ the Sheriff’s Office cannot evaluate this claim,” the department said.

It also defended its non-cooperation policy.

“As a law enforcement agency, we are not tasked with enforcing federal immigration laws. Our responsibility is to comply with California law, which prioritizes public safety and the protection of individual rights. We remain committed to following the law while ensuring that our community is safe,” the Office said.

The Washington Times reached out to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for this story.

Fairfax County officials have said they will demand a judicial warrant before transferring someone to ICE.

Experts say that’s not how the immigration system works. Although crossing the border illegally is a criminal offense and can earn jail time, illegal presence itself is a civil matter for which the consequence is deportation.

That means ICE deals in administrative warrants, not judicial warrants, for most immigration cases.

Each side complains about the other’s behavior.

ICE says some jurisdictions claim to cooperate but give only a short heads-up before releasing someone, making it difficult for officers to arrive in time.

Fairfax County said that when it did comply with ICE detainers, the agency would sometimes fail to pick them up.

Sanctuaries say that cooperating with ICE hurts their law enforcement officers’ relationship with immigrant communities, making people more reticent about reporting crimes.

Sanctuary critics say the result is that criminals with no right to be in the U.S. are released into communities.

That includes Yohandri Roger Mosquera-Rosas. Last year, ICE said he was released by Fairfax County despite repeated detainer requests and a record that included hit-and-run and multiple firearms and DUI crimes.

ICE officers ended up arresting him in the community in September.

ICE, over the years, has highlighted a string of Fairfax County cases of Central American illegal immigrants released despite charges of sex crimes against teen girls.

Among them was a Honduran man arrested on a child sex crime charge in 2023. He was released by the county and then arrested last year on four more child sex crime counts.

ICE issued 149,764 detainer requests in fiscal 2024, up from 65,940 in 2021, the first year under President Biden, but below the 165,487 issued in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year in President Trump’s first term.

Among those detainer targets were more than 4,000 homicide cases, 4,500 kidnappings, 7,900 robberies, 19,400 weapons offenses and nearly 21,400 sex offenses.