Immigrant community members and advocacy groups are urging the Arlington County Board of Supervisors to redraft its proposed policy on voluntarily cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While the current policy prevents Arlington County Police from participating directly in immigration enforcement, advocates say the new proposal does little to prevent agencies like the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office from voluntarily turning over people to federal officials.

“This collaboration is completely not required by federal or state law. So Arlington County, by proposing this policy, is choosing to help ICE and assist ICE,” says Amber Qureshi, an attorney at the National Immigration Project.

Last September, the county board began accepting public comments after announcing that it would draft a new policy for how it would cooperate with federal immigration officials. The board also released a framework for the proposal.

Previously, board chair Matt De Ferranti told WAMU/DCist he had hoped to draft and finalize a new ICE policy for the county around November. Meanwhile, advocacy groups pushed for the county to end the collaboration altogether.

However, after waiting more than 6 months, activists are frustrated with the contents of the proposal, which they say was rushed to a vote this Saturday before being punted to next month.

“They just basically completely abrogated their main responsibility, which was to tell the police what to do,” says Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center. “Instead, they merely defer to what the police are currently doing.”

According to Qureshi, immigrants in Arlington are often arrested for not presenting personal identification, such as a government issued ID, to law enforcement. The problem, she says, is that many immigrants simply don’t have it. Their recommended policy, which is also known as the Communities of Arlington Protected from Abuse by ICE (CAPA), would instead have Arlington County accept a range of documentation to prevent such consequences.

For people like Magdalena Valdivia, the current threat of being turned over to federal officials is paralyzing. She says she spent time in detention after immigrating from Nicaragua to Arlington County nearly two months ago. Now, she’s almost too afraid to leave her house.

“There are many people in this area who fear ICE,” says Valdivia. “I can’t even go out because if I get grabbed by [immigration officials], and they ask me for my documentation, what am I supposed to show them?”

Like many immigrants, Valdivia says she came to the United States to escape her country’s government and to support her family who stayed behind – including four children. But she says it hasn’t been easy and the conditions inside of detention facilities are horrible.

“My country is not beautiful. There’s nothing beautiful about a dictatorship. But you come to the United States looking for support and they put you in jail. They treat you like a criminal. You ask for help and they don’t even look at you,” says Valdivia, who is now an organizer with La ColectiVA, a local activist group.

Valdivia is not alone. Carlos Amaya says he spent nearly two years in ICE Detention and that he wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone else.

“I lost two years of my life just because I was [undocumented] in this country” says Amaya, who’s lived in Arlington County for six years since moving from El Salvador. “But we’re fighting to change things.”

In addition to accepting different forms of identification, Qureshi says it’s time for the Sheriff’s Office to stop voluntarily collaborating with immigration officials. According to reporting from ARLnow.com, the Sheriff will hold undocumented people for up to 48 hours if a request from ICE to do so is signed by a judge.

“The sheriff’s office has a policy of contacting ICE anytime an individual is released from the Arlington County jail, and they’ve turned over hundreds of people in Arlington over to ICE as a result of this policy,” says Qureshi.

Because the office works independently from the county, it’s ultimately up to Sheriff Beth Arthur to end the policy of working voluntarily with ICE. Meanwhile, Amaya says he won’t stop fighting for people to feel at ease in their community.

“We’re good people,” says Amaya. “We didn’t come to cause problems in this country. We came here with hope and dreams.”

Previously:

As Arlington Reassesses ICE Collaboration, Advocates Push For Plan To End It Entirely

Arlington County Is Reassessing Rules For Cooperation With ICE