Comments At Arlington County Board Meeting, March 14, 2026.
At the February 21 County Board meeting, a spokesperson for open borders advocacy group La Colectiva denounced Arlington County for collaborating with corporations like Amazon to enable ICE. Citing a January 14 ICE operation to detain an illegal immigrant outside Megamart on the Pike, the spokesperson said:
“This is a worker getting there in the morning and ICE greets him with weapons drawn, and we know that this is only possible because of collaboration and collusion between the state and big tech. The collusion that you all have enabled in Arlington County by giving deals to corporations like Amazon and also maintaining contracts with corporations like Flock. . .This is what fuels ICE, and we will not stop till we get ICE out of Arlington.”
Just who did ICE detain on January 14? According to the Patch, he is Dionel Florian-Garcia, a twice deported Guatemalan who served time for both driving under the influence and stabbing his roommate in the gut while intoxicated.
Having reentered the U.S. a third time, he was arrested in September, 2025 for driving while intoxicated and was awaiting trial when detained by ICE. Florian-Garcia pled guilty to the charge and will be sentenced on May 12.
Despite the threat posed by drunk drivers like Florian-Garcia, another open borders advocate, Maria Powers said: “Many Arlingtonians wake up every day afraid for our neighbors . . . Due process covers everyone present in the United States. It has nothing to do with citizenship.”
Nevertheless the open borders crowd doesn’t lose sleep over legal immigrants scared of being assaulted or run over by someone with no legal right to be here.