Attorney General Mark Herring has issued his opinion that local police need not hold illegal immigrants waiting for ICE to pick them up. Local sheriffs can defy requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they have asked a locality to retain a suspected illegal immigrant. Herring has said that he will eliminate these ‘ICE detainers’ in Virginia.[read_more]
Good idea, just ignore those pesky federal law enforcement requests.
Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle had asked Herring for an opinion when he learned that Sheriffs in other states had been been held responsible by federal courts when they released people who ICE had asked that they detain. Stolle said this about Herring’s ruling,
“I understand some people think it’s a political football, but I couldn’t disagree more,” Stolle said. “You can’t detain someone without the legal authority. You can’t do that in America. And I’m proud that you can’t do that in America.”
What part of ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT does he not understand?
Senator Dick Black (R-13) stated his opinion on Herring’s ruling,
“Attorney General Mark Herring’s opinion makes the bizarre claim that a federal detainer doesn’t provide authority to detain an illegal immigrant. The Code of Federal Regulations contain specific authority for local law enforcement to detain immigrants for up to 48 hours. Attorney General Mark Herring is the most lawless attorney general in Virginia’s history. This opinion does not interpret the law, it defies the law. Detainers are almost always issued for immigrants accused of criminal offenses. If Virginia refuses to honor federal detainers, it will simply leave sexual predators and other criminals to walk the streets in our communities. Mark Herring has made it clear that he cares more about alien criminals than he cares about American voters.”
Once again, Mark Herring has ignored the laws and instructed Virginians to ignore federal laws. It’s become quite a habit with him. Any law he doesn’t agree with is not to be enforced in Virginia, including that Oath of Office he took when he swore to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth. Why did he bother when he had no intention of enforcing the laws of Virginia or the nation?
