36 Virginia's Sanctuary Cities and Counties Top the Charts: Study

Morgan Sweeney , November 25, 2024

The Center for Immigration Studies, an immigration policy think tank, released on Thursday its updated map of American refuge locations. It revealed a surge of localities in Virginia adopting sanctuary status.

The center has added 36 Virginia locations to its map, bringing the total up to 84.

According to the map of the Immigration Customs and Enforcement Center, ” tracking non-cooperative institutions” is based on the internal tracking by the Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

Jessica Vaughn is the director of the policy studies at the center, which calls itself “Low Immigration, Pro-Immigrant”. She lamented the growth in sanctuary locations, saying that they create an unnecessarily burdensome situation for ICE, and also provide opportunities for increased crime.

She said, in a podcast for the center: “It’s alarming to continue seeing sanctuary policies spread across the country, particularly in places like Virginia.” “ICE had to use scarce resources to rearrest violent gangs members and rapists who were released by local jails when they should have transferred directly to ICE custody to take a flight home.”

Vaughan believes that state and federal legislators should adopt policies to prevent local law enforcement officials from violating ICE protocols and penalize anyone who does.

The center started tracking sanctuary locations in 2015. It bases its data on ICE records as well as open sources. According to the center, since 2015, over 10,000 migrants were “arrested” by local authorities “for state and local crimes”, but “released to the streets because of sanctuary policies despite ICE requesting custody with a retainer,” a significant share later reoffending.

Many localities who embrace sanctuary policies will not use the term because there is no federal definition.

Fairfax County adopted in 2021 a policy to “reaffirm”, existing county policy, as part of one Fairfax which protects migrants against their immigration status being revealed to federal officials.

The center cited a case of a Honduran man who had been arrested for a child sexual crime and was then released from prison.

The center reports that he was released in July 2023, after being arrested “despite an ICE Detainer” by Fairfax County Police. Fairfax police then arrested him in February 2024, on allegedly four additional counts of child sex crime, and jail released him on a bond of $10,000.

According to the center, “In April 2024 ICE sent a group of officers to arrest an offender in Bladensburg in Maryland. They stated that he will be held in ICE custody till his proceedings are completed.”