Fairfax County’s participation in a federal program that screens every inmate for immigration violations has caused the county to net a much higher percentage of suspected illegal immigrants that stand accused of a variety of lesser crimes than D.C. and Alexandria.
For example, nearly 7 percent of Fairfax County inmates that are suspected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially landed in jail because they were charged with driving while intoxicated.
In Alexandria, about 5 percent of the inmates with ICE warrants were brought in on a DWI charge. D.C. jail officials said none of their inmates with ICE warrants had DWI charges.
The statistics cover inmates who were in the jail during the last week of February.
Fairfax County is the only jurisdiction in the region that actively uses Secure Communities. Alexandria and the District work with ICE’s Criminal Alien Program, through which local law enforcement identifies possible illegal immigrants to an ICE agent who then conducts an investigation, officials said.
Donald Kerwin, vice president of programming with the Migration Policy Institute, said DWI arrest statistics show the effect of Secure Communities is “significant.”
“It indicates that the program [in Fairfax] is being used to screen out and deport people who commit less significant offenses,” Kerwin said.
Lt. Basilio Cachuela, a spokesman for Fairfax County’s Sheriff’s Office, said “we’re targeting more serious crimes, but [with Secure Communities] we find people arrested locally on lesser charges who are wanted for more serious crimes.”
