Lawsuit Filed Against Culpeper County Sheriff over Immigration Detentions

A Virginia resident has filed a civil rights class action lawsuit against Scott Jenkins, the Sheriff of Culpeper County, alleging that he unlawfully keeps immigrants in jail after their release dates. Victor M Glasberg and Associates, and the Legal Aid Justice Center brought the lawsuit to challenge the Sheriff’s policy of honoring US Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigration (ICE) detainers, requests to hold immigrants in local custody for longer than their ordered release date by judges.

Immigration detainers are not signed by judges, unlike criminal warrants, and do not give local jails authorization to keep holding immigrants in jail, with many courts declaring that to do so is a violation of their constitutional rights.

Attorney General, Mark Herring, put Virginia sheriffs on notice in 2015 that it was illegal to honor immigration detainers, where he stated in the Legality of ICE Detainer Requests opinion that adults or juvenile inmates with fixed release dates must be released on that date regardless of whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued an immigration detainer request. The plaintiff in the class action, Francisco Guardado Rios, said that he was pulled over and arrested in Culpeper County for a minor traffic violation, to then end up spending the next three months in jail.

Legal Aid Justice Center staff attorney, Sophia Gregg, said that Sheriff Jenkins has been operating outside the law for years and that they will now begin the fight to have him held accountable.