The ACLU of Virginia has urged Fauquier County Sheriff Robert P. Mosier to withdraw his application to participate in the federal government’s 287g program. Under the sheriff’s request, his office would enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would turn deputies at the Fauquier Adult Detention Center into trained, delegated ICE agents. In a March 29 letter to the sheriff, ACLU-VA Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga explains that the MOA would not address “criminal aliens,” as the sheriff has represented to county residents, and that such agreements only make communities less safe by discouraging foreign born Virginians from cooperating with police.
The letter to the Fauquier sheriff follows a similar correspondence directed to all local law enforcement agencies in Virginia through the Virginia Sheriff's Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League.
