by Jonathan Krall
This week, the Washington Post published our op-ed about ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Alexandria. We encourage you to visit the Washington Post and read about it. The op-ed includes specific statements and statistics. Below we provide our sources.
Want less text and more action? Sign our petition here. And skip to the bottom of this post for more.
TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) can be found here. Their report on ICE detentions is informative.
Across the USA, local jails are the main route by which our friends and neighbors become ICE detainees. TRAC published another report, showing that most people transferred to ICE from local jails are transferred while awaiting trial or after being convicted of a very minor offense.
In the op-ed, we imply that many Americans, especially people of color, are pulled into the US criminal justice system for no good reason at all. This is but one example.
TRAC has specific information about ICE in Alexandria. To access the Alexandria data, select Virginia in the left column and Alexandria in the center column. Transfers from our jail, called “CAP Local Incarceration,” are listed in the third column. CAP (criminal alien program) is an ICE designation that shows their biases. As we mention above, most people transferred to ICE are transferred pretrial and are innocent until proven guilty. Further, being present in the US without authorization is a civil rather than a criminal offense. Clicking on “CAP Local Incarceration” brings up specific month-by-month numbers, showing that Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne has transferred far too many of our friends and neighbors to ICE.
To take further action, please write to the Alexandria City Council with the following message: “Please pass a resolution requesting that Sheriff Lawhorne not only end his contract with ICE as soon as possible, but that he use his legal discretion to minimize the transfer of Alexandrians into ICE custody.”
Thanks for reading and for your support.