Comments At Arlington County Board Meeting, June 14, 2025.
On May 13, with little notice, no public hearing and a vote scheduled on a weekday, when most County residents were at work, County Board revoked Section 7 of the County Trust policy, which had authorized limited cooperation with ICE.
Under Section 7 Arlington Police could notify ICE of cases involving undocumented immigrants: wanted or arrested for a felony offense; identified as gang members, or arrested for terrorism or human trafficking. So what’s wrong with that?
J.D. Spain insists that repeal of Section 7 was necessitated by widespread public support. Why then was previous commentary on Section 7 monopolized by two open borders groups, La Colectiva, with no known local address and a board located in Washington state, and Casa VA from Woodbridge, Viriginia? If indeed there is broad based support for keeping ICE outside of Arlington, why couldn’t the general public weigh in?
Takis Karantonis frames repeal of Section 7 as a public safety issue, necessitated by members of the immigrant community reluctant to contact police or other emergency services for fear of getting arrested themselves. But increased crime not increased public safety will result from non-cooperation with ICE.
Consider what happens when illegal immigrant felons, who have served their sentences, are released from County jail without work authorization. No doubt they will revert to a life of crime to survive, and their principal victims will be legal immigrants from their own neighborhoods. This should be a matter of concern to all.
Yet Open Borders crowd has expressed no concern about the revolving door to prison. Why should they? Since many of them live nowhere near here, they won’t be impacted.