Democrat Trust Policy Bars Arlington Police From Calling ICE — Even for Violent Felons, Gangs, and Terrorists

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. — Democrat officials on the Arlington County Board wrote a “Trust Policy” that, according to a Sept. 21, 2026 House Judiciary interim staff report, now bars the Arlington County Police Department from initiating contact with federal immigration authorities even when officers identify an illegal alien as a violent felon, gang member, human trafficker, or terrorist.

The House Judiciary interim staff report, issued by Chairman Jim Jordan’s Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock, frames Arlington as a case study in how Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions release criminal aliens back onto Virginia streets instead of transferring them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The report traces how earlier versions of the Trust Policy already limited status disclosures, barred honoring most ICE detainers, and confined ACPD–ICE contact to rare exceptions involving violent felons or aliens reasonably suspected of terrorism or human trafficking. In May 2025, after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Democrat-led County Board enacted new prohibitions that eliminated those exceptions. The committee cites local reporting and the county’s own updated Trust Policy language showing ACPD is prohibited from initiating contact with federal immigration authorities even in the most serious cases.

“In other words,” the interim staff report states, “Arlington County’s new policy protects the worst of the worst of criminal aliens—murderers, terrorists, and sex traffickers—from deportation.” That is a policy choice by Democrat local government, not a federal mandate.

County data cited in the report show how rarely Arlington police already talked to ICE before the latest crackdown on cooperation: ACPD contacted federal immigration authorities 17 times in 2025, 18 times in 2024, seven times in 2023, and six times in 2022 — in a county where about 26,000 foreign nationals made up roughly 11 percent of the population in 2024, according to figures the report attributes to the American Immigration Council.

The Democrat Trust Policy also governs the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office. With the latest updates, ACSO is prohibited from honoring ICE detainers that are not accompanied by a judicial warrant — a document the report notes is effectively impossible to obtain in typical state-crime custody cases that do not involve a federal crime. From January 2025 through May 2026, ACSO received 310 ICE detainers and honored only two, both accompanied by a judicial warrant. That is a 0.65 percent compliance rate. Forty-two of the individuals for whom ICE lodged detainers already had criminal convictions at the time, according to ICE information provided to the committee.

House Republicans argue those refused detainers are not abstract paperwork fights. A detainer is ICE’s formal request that a jail notify the agency before releasing a removable alien and hold the person briefly so ICE can take custody in a secure setting. When Democrat sanctuary rules force release instead, the report says, dangerous foreign-national criminals — including aliens already convicted of serious crimes — walk free and remain able to reoffend.

The interim report places Arlington’s Democrat Board choices inside a national pattern: between October 2022 and early 2026, sanctuary jurisdictions declined at least 41,085 ICE detainers, ICE told the committee. In the first 12 months of President Trump’s second term alone, state and local agencies declined at least 17,864 detainers, including for aliens charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault to murder.

Committee staff emphasize that Arlington’s obstruction is deliberate and ongoing. Since January 2026, Judiciary and the immigration subcommittee have sought records from 40 officials in 13 sanctuary jurisdictions; the Arlington packet draws on nonpublic documents, data, and testimony showing how local Democrat policy actively shields foreign-national criminals from federal removal.

For northern Virginia residents, the policy math is blunt. Democrat county leaders ordered police not to call ICE for the worst offenders. Democrat-aligned custody rules left the sheriff honoring fewer than one percent of ICE detainers. Forty-two of those ignored requests already involved people with convictions. The House Judiciary report says that combination is how sanctuary politics becomes a public-safety problem on Arlington streets.

Email the Arlington County Board:
Matt de Ferranti, mdeferranti@arlingtonva.us,
Maureen Coffey, mcoffey@arlingtonva.us,
Susan Cunningham, scunningham@arlingtonva.us,
Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., jdspainsr@arlingtonva.us,
Takis Karantonis, tkarantonis@arlingtonva.us,

Email the Arlington County School Board:
Miranda Turner, miranda.turner@apsva.us,
Kathleen Clark, kathleen.clark2@apsva.us,
Monique Bryant, monique.bryant@apsva.us,
Zuraya Tapia-Hadley, zuraya.tapiahadley@apsva.us,
Bethany Zecher Sutton, bethany.zechersutton@apsva.us,