Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Arlington County’s manager says illegal immigrants don’t have to be afraid because local police have not and will not be checking on their immigration status. Manager Mark Schwartz said that’s the federal government’s job and not the responsibility of Arlington County Police.
“Arlington will always embrace our values to be an inclusive community that welcomes immigrants regardless of their immigration status,” Schwartz told the county board yesterday.
Despite this, Schwartz county police will help ICE if the agency asks for assistance executing a criminal warrant.
His comments come in the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement that sanctuary cities will not be getting federal funds.
Schwartz stresses that Arlington County is not a sanctuary city.
“We believe that using that term could potentially mislead people into believing that Arlington County is able to shield them from immigration enforcement actions by the federal government. Simply put, we do not have the ability to protect any individual from federal immigration enforcement actions,” Schwartz said.
The county is launching a one stop immigration resource website to give people information about immigration enforcement policies and services.
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