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If Mayor Vince Gray’s announcement that D.C. police would no longer be checking the immigration status of people stopped for minor offenses put the city at one end of the immigration spectrum, then Virginia’s Prince William County is certainly at the other — something Corey Stewart, the Chairman At-Large of the county’s Board of Supervisors, wants everyone to know.

According to Fox News, Stewart called the District’s policy — which has been in effect in one form or another for the last 20 years or so — an “abomination.” He added:

“This is the capital of the United States, and to have the nation’s capital as a sanctuary city where essentially federal law is not going to be enforced sends all the wrong messages — not just in the United States but around the world.”

As part of the policy announced by Gray, police officers won’t inquire into the immigration status of residents detained for minor crimes, nor will they enforce civil immigration orders unless directly related to a serious crime. Still, senior officials stressed that the District still sends fingerprints of individuals accused of violent crimes to the FBI, which can then work with the Department of Homeland Security to determine immigration status.

Stewart and his colleagues in Prince William County have certainly marched in a very different direction than cities like the District when it comes to immigration enforcement.

In 2007, the county imposed one of the strictest immigration enforcement policies in the country, allowing police officers to inquire about immigration during arrests if there is probable cause to believe that the suspect is undocumented. (Sounds like it influenced a certain southwestern state, right?)

In the first three years that the county’s policy was in effect, some 5,000 immigrants left the county, while 2,000 more were detained and handed over to the federal government. A report by county police in late 2010 reported that the enhanced police powers had led to a “palpable chill” in relations between the Hispanic community and police, and that the policy had “not affected most types of crime in Prince William County.”

Stewart hasn’t left it there, though. Earlier this year, the county sued the Department of Homeland Security to find out what had happened with thousands of illegal immigrants that were turned over to the federal government. Stewart said he was concerned that they were simply being released back into the community.

During yesterday’s press conference, Gray and other officials stressed that fears over immigration enforcement could lead to a weakening of cooperation between the city’s Hispanic population and police.