Virginia Sheriff Warns: Sanctuary Policies ‘Endanger Our Citizens’

As Virginia considers limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman warns in a new Parsing Immigration Policy podcast that such policies could undermine public safety.

Both podcast host Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy Studies, and Chapman recently testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the fiscal and human costs of sanctuary jurisdictions.

Chapman, a 14-year sheriff overseeing Virginia’s largest full-service sheriff’s office, described cooperation with federal authorities as standard law enforcement practice. He describes his 287(g) agreement with ICE, which enables his office to notify federal authorities when removable offenders in custody are scheduled for release and hold them for up to 48 hours for ICE to pick them up. In practice, he noted, ICE nearly always assumes custody without delay.

“Why would I release a criminal alien back into the community to commit another crime? I’m not going to apologize for doing my job — keeping people safe.”

In the discussion, Chapman also emphasized accountability in law enforcement, noting that as an elected sheriff, he answers directly to the public — not political leadership. This allows public safety to drive the mission, not politics.

Key topics of the interview with Sheriff Chapman include:

• How cooperation with ICE reduces the need for riskier at-large arrests
• The role of detainers and advance notification in transferring custody
• Why claims that cooperation discourages crime reporting are not true in practice
• Concerns that requiring judicial warrants for civil detainers would “slow everything to a crawl”

Chapman warned that proposed restrictions in Virginia, including limiting agreements with ICE and curtailing information-sharing, could replicate the public safety consequences seen in other sanctuary jurisdictions. The neighboring Fairfax County has had two murders recently, allegedly by individuals released despite detainers placed on them by ICE.

Host

Jessica Vaughan the Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Guest

Mike Chapman is the Sheriff of Loudoun County, Virginia.

Related

Map: Sanctuary Cities, Counties, and States

Which Sanctuary Jurisdictions Have Released the Most Criminals

Testimony - Sanctuary Cities: The Cost of Undermining Law and Order

Are Immigrants Less Willing to Report Crime?

Intro Montage

Voices in the opening montage:

• Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.
• Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.
• President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.
• Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.
• Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.
• Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.
• Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.
• Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.
• Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.
• Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".