Activists Demand Transfers To ICE End, Alexandria Sheriff's Office Responds

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A group opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement taking action in Alexandria has called on the city's sheriff to stop transfers to ICE. The sheriff's office has responded that it does not enforce immigration laws but transfers to ICE when required by law.

ICE Out of Alexandria, which says it is a collective of city residents, provided a letter to Sheriff Sean Casey on Tuesday demanding his office end "voluntary collaboration with ICE." The group noted increasing ICE raids under the Trump administration, including in Alexandria.

""Alexandria’s police force has been instructed not to collaborate with ICE," said Oliver Merino, an Alexandria resident with ICE Out of Alexandria. "The Sheriff is an elected position and as such should be more accountable to city residents, not less – we want ICE out of our city. We demand due process for all of our neighbors."

ICE Out of Alexandria is claiming that Casey's sheriff's office holds inmates beyond their release date for up to eight hours for ICE to pick up, gives ICE "courtesy calls" about an undocumented person being released, and transfers residents to ICE under administrative warrants.

"While Virginia code does require you to submit a query to ICE's database for any individual not known to be a U.S. citizen, it does not require transferring custody, making any courtesy notifications to ICE, or holding any individual to allow ICE to pick them up," the letter signed by 24 local groups and leaders to Casey read.

Alexandria Sheriff's Office spokesperson Amy Bertsch told Patch the sheriff's office is following the law on inmate transfers to ICE.

"The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office does not 'collaborate' with ICE and the notifications we make to ICE are not 'courtesy' calls; we do follow the law and Virginia law requires that we communicate with ICE and provides statutory authority for the transfer of inmates to ICE," Bertsch said. "We are required and obligated to transfer inmates to ICE upon receipt of a lawful arrest warrant, and this process is the same for all law enforcement agencies seeking custody of an inmate at the Alexandria Adult Detenion Center."

Bertsch said that "claims that we hold immigrants beyond their release time for ICE are false" and that transfers to ICE and other law enforcement happen promptly and in line with the law.

ICE Out of Alexandria had cited the sheriff's office report of 40 transfers to ICE custody in 2025 through August. Bertsch noted the 40 transferred to ICE custody were among the 1,552 people facing criminal charges who were taken to the Alexandria jail from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31. The 40 sent to ICE custody had "lawful federal arrest warrants," according to the sheriff's office.

The sheriff's office rejected claims that it was enforcing administrative immigration warrants — outside of those facing other criminal charges at the jail.

"The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office values all our community members and we work with local groups to support our immigrant neighbors," the sheriff's office spokesperson said. "We do not take part in any immigration enforcement in our community and in fact Sheriff Casey rejected the Governor’s Office demand earlier this year that all law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth participate and cooperate in immigration enforcement in our communities."

The sheriff's office said ICE has not been permitted to use the Alexandria jail to hold its detainees for several years. ICE Out of Alexandria has raised concerns with "inhumane, overcrowded conditions" in the ICE local field office and Farmville detention center where ICE detainees are held.

Most recently, ICE shared that it arrested a man wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide and illicit associations on Oct. 2 in Alexandria, according to ALX Now. Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores, who ICE claimed is an MS-13 gang leader, is facing a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle.