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Debate Over Jails and ICE Heats Up in Charlottesville

ICE

Frustrated by the federal government’s failure to fix this country’s immigration system, some people are doing what they can at the  local level. 

In Charlottesville, for example, voters are urging the local jail board to stop calling ICE agents when an undocumented person is being released. 

Board members are expected to vote on the issue later this month.

By law, local jails must notify ICE when they lock-up an undocumented person, but jails are not required to contact immigration before releasing people. The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail does so, several members of its board arguing it’s a matter of public safety.

That was true under the Obama administration according to lawyer Tanishka Cruz.  ICE was selective in picking people up when they were freed. “The hierarchy was gang members and serious criminal offenders,” Cruz said.

But a review of 50 people picked up from the jail last year showed ICE is no longer making distinctions, which explains the case of Eva Solano.  The mother of two, she came here from Mexico when she was 18 and found work right away.  Fifteen years later, she was a sous chef at a local restaurant when she made a serious mistake – drinking before driving.  ‘Yeah, I had a very bad situation at my job, and I made a bad decision, and I feel very bad about it, but after that I try to do things right," Solano admitted.

She also lacked a license – something undocumented immigrants cannot legally get in Virginia, so she was sentenced to serve time on the weekends in jail.  As soon as she had done her time, ICE agents picked her up and sent her to an immigration prison in Caroline County. “I was in the ICE facility for 28 days.”

During that time, her lawyer gathered letters from those who could vouch for her. “I do this with a lot of cases," Tanishka Cruz said, "and I found it extraordinary that I had 25 letters of support – people she worked with ten years ago who say, ‘If she needs a job, I would hire her.’  I mean she’s a very talented chef and has really made a big impact in the community.”

She says Solano may be able to stay in this country, because she has a 5-year-old daughter who was born here, but this case aside, Cruz and many others in Charlottesville are pressing the jail’s board to change its policy and stop alerting ICE every time an undocumented prisoner is released.

Some on the board may fear the loss of federal funds if they don’t cooperate fully, but community organizer Luis Oyola says that fear is unfounded.  “Around the country there are 169 localities that have chosen to stop notifying ice, and not a single one had their funding cut.”

Oyola and others have been lobbying the jail board which could vote on whether to notify ICE May 9th at its mid-day meeting. 

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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