The following is from Attorney General Herring’s office, “issued to Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle about whether sheriffs are required by law to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainment requests, commonly called ‘ICE detainers.'”
It is my opinion that an ICE detainer is merely a request. It does not create for a law enforcement agency either an obligation or legal authority to maintain custody of a prisoner who is otherwise eligible for immediate release from local or state custody. For that reason, an adult inmate or a juvenile inmate with a fixed release date should be released from custody on that date notwithstanding the agency’s receipt of an ICE detainer. If a juvenile is being held pursuant to an indeterminate commitment, the DJJ may exercise its discretion to hold the juvenile until ICE officials assume custody, provided DJJ does not hold the juvenile longer than thirty-six continuous months or past his twenty-first birthday.
Good stuff yet again by AG Mark Herring. Thank goodness he won, not far-right-wing Mark Obenshain.
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