Thread by @socialistdogmom

at the charlottesville albemarle regional jail for a public hearing. the room is only rated for 50 people. after the board and other officials, that leaves seats for 28 members of the public. overflow seating is outside. it’s 40 degrees.

nothing but the best for our public hearings.

hearing still hasn’t started. had time to run back to my car for a blanket, gloves, and hand warmers. didn’t realize i needed these for a public hearing. ironically, the ICE agents are warm & cozy inside while the public turns to icicles outside.

some talk now about the meeting not even including a public comment period? i hope this isn’t true. activists have shown up to speak and are inside. at least 30 members of the public crowded around the TVs outside.

meeting is now starting. my tweeting fingers are a little cold... reynauds may prevent a comprehensive live tweet.

the mics in the room are picking up an excruciating level of paper shuffling. jesus.

requirement under va code: when someone is detained, they ask country of origin, fingerprint. they notify ICE of release date for individuals ICE has formally requested detainer for. if ice doesn’t show up, they’re simply released.

jail doesn’t determine undocumented status, simply notifies ICE. ICE uses own criteria to determine who to detain, jail claims not to know what that is.
jail receives about 50 I-247a forms a year.

speaker claims the jail doesn’t even track or analyze this information. would have to look at each individual file?!

albemarle CA tracci & rutherford (?) want no change in policy, new cville CA platania still unsure of his policy going forward. says federal immigration policy isn’t really his purview.

“this is not a political decision, this is a criminal justice matter.” how can these be separated? it’s a human rights matter, first and foremost.

nelson county & albemarle want blanket notification on all charges. cville CA wants, tentatively, to be notified on felony & DUI charges only, not misdemeanors. (we have a brand new CA, which might explain the change here in cville)

councilor wes bellamy asks how many speakers they usually have in matters by the public. chair says they never have any. is this because no one comes or because they don’t usually allow it?
individuals will speak for 3 min, groups get 5. comments starting now.

1st speaker is from LAJC.
jail releases 4 people/mo into ICE custody; mostly misdemeanors. these people have usually served their time or been released without conviction.
whether ICE picks them up has more to do with whether it’s convenient than with severity of charges.

2nd speaker is a law professor. says compliance with ICE detainers is voluntary. our system is brutal & violates human rights. nonviolent offenders are held without bail even when community judges say they are no threat. immigration judges don’t care about impact on community.

why should we help ICE? our police and jails serve our community (ehhh agree to disagree). ICE does not operate with the same standards. we should not cooperate with this systematic brutality.

3rd speaker is member of clergy from sojourners. citing stats on crime in communities with large immigrant population. immigrants aren’t raising crime rates. but fear of deportation leads to lack of reporting, leaving them vulnerable.

how does it improve public safety when families are terrified, ripped apart. families losing breadwinners, kids afraid to go to school. protecting families should come first. deportation doesn’t improve public safety.

4th speaker is a PTO member at a school with high spanish speaking population. her kids’ friends are worried about deportation. she’s reading a letter from a woman whose husband is being detained after a minor offense (driving w/o a license)

always keep a blanket in your car y’all. even with this blanket, this is a very uncomfortable experience. fuck this system designed to operate in the dark.

this speaker is describing legal clinics she assisted with for parents to make legal arrangements for their kids if they are detained. what a terrifying plan to need to make. hundreds of families attended power of attorney sessions.

many speakers have mentioned that these undocumented immigrants are paying taxes and SS, they own businesses. they are part of our community and our local economy.

this speaker works with victims of sexual and domestic abuse. victims often don’t report for fear of their abuser will be deported. victims also risk retaliatory accusations, leading to their own detainment by ICE. they fear any contact with law enforcement

another member of the clergy speaking. reading a statement from an undocumented teenager. his father appeared in court and was detained by ICE. family lives in fear and sometimes goes hungry. three children are living without their father.

seth wispelwey has powerful words about what “political” even means. of course this is political. i’ll try to get the text of his statement. it’s good.

notification of ICE is based on an existing ICE detainer... but these are based on nothing. ICE doesn’t need to meet a standard similar to our regular warrants. people are being held without any judicial review. we’re complying with a system that doesn’t meet our own standards.

LAJC attorney speaking to constitutional issues with ICE detainment. board cuts her off because LAJC has already spoken. legal aid justice center should get more time.

this is the first speaker with hate & bigotry on her mind. “illegal aliens” have “already broken our laws.”
she hopes the board won’t be pressured by “certain groups” and they will prioritize “safety and security.”
“what about people harmed by illegal aliens?”
oh sit down.

literally said that some of them are fine people. trump speak has filtered down to the lowest level of government.
citing the murder of kate steinle now. so much hand wringing over largely imaginary crime.

yessss Lena. opens her comments by reminding the board & ICE agents that every one of them is an immigrant.
our immigrant community lives in fear and doesn’t feel they have access to the legal system. safety starts with treating everyone with decency.

this speaker opens by saying the threat of MS-13 shouldn’t be used to incite fear of all immigrants. tells the story of a man detained for months for failure to pay child support.

if it’s really about public safety, why doesn’t ICE share their important information with local law enforcement? why don’t they get judicial warrants?

this speaker is a bit soft spoken. i think the voice is miss katrina from cville BLM. she’s worried about her family with mexican heritage visiting her here.

public comment has ended. looks like we’ll hear from the board now, then ICE. some disagreement about what order we’ll proceed in.

an ICE agent is reading the ICE mission statement i guess. my eyes hurt from rolling so hard. he is upset about the “fear mongering” about theo practices. they are “keeping communities safe.” all they want is notification from one law enforcement agency to another.

he’s listing off all the crimes committed by locals detained by ICE last year. i’m skeptical of the list. 50 people seem to have committed more crimes than seem possible...

hearing a horror story about a violent rapist. it’s the MS-13 tactic in different clothes.
“not everyone detained by ice is deported”
“all aliens are entitled to due process”
don’t use offensive language AND lie to me. c’mon.

alright wes, step to that agent. thank you.
asking why they don’t share information with police, how they decide who gets detained.
points out these families have to shell out resources to get a judge to say they’re no risk when they never should’ve been detained at all.

those ICE suit is so monotone. he’s saying nothing at all. it’s mind numbing.
“this is all in the interest of public safety.”
wes pushes: what about child support? is that about public safety? he’s really on it.

he’s mumbling, talking in circles trying to justify detaining someone after a traffic offense. i can’t even follow this shitty logic.

a member of the board is concerned about a recent incident where ICE agents presented a FAKE WARRANT. she says “i don’t want to be pejorative, but...”
no. fuck no. that’s a crime. they lied. it’s not pejorative. that is straight up fucking terrifying and that needs to be said.

“the united states’ recognition of ICE’s unique authorities since the 1700s...” he’s mumbling again but i had no idea 2003 was 300 years ago.

“i still am skeptical of its constitutionality” a member of the board about... i think the fake warrant situation?

“we’re not asking anybody to enforce immigration laws, we’re asking for notification.”
member of the board pushes back, says they have plenty of time to get a real judicial warrant.

member of the board pushing hard on why ICE can’t share information with him. ice suit says they have to obey the statue. board member asks which statue. ICE: it’s in the code.
so.... you don’t know. board member asks him to look it up and get back to him. spicy 🌶

board pushing hard on what criteria they use to decide which folks to detain.
“are there any cases where you do issue a judicial warrant?”
ICE: “we don’t have any arrest powers.”
that... wasn’t the question.

“being present in the united states is not a criminal offense. it’s a civil offense.” - member of the board
response from mr icy mumbles not audible.
board member says “i’m not gonna argue the point.”

this is why it matters which offenses get fingerprinted. that’s what can trigger notification. example: not all localities fingerprint for drunk in public.
“do we fingerprint for DIPs?
“usually we do.”
usually?!

i got here 40 minutes early to make sure i could get a seat. joke’s on me, i’ve been outside for more than two hours!

i missed the context, sadly, but i heard wes say, “and does that make you feel good about yourself?”
uncomfortable laughter

“there is a high number of individuals in our custody who had criminal convictions.”
wes isn’t letting it go. what about those who don’t? what about the extreme hardship on their families?

board member asking about how they monitor folks released from jails that don’t comply & notify ICE of release dates?
“i don’t know what i don’t know”
“i don’t think you understand my question.” how do they monitor releases?

DC doesn’t comply — the city law says they’ll notify only at a very high threshold.

still totally unable to pin down criteria. wes says, “so if someone is picked up for driving on a suspended license... they wouldn’t be detained?”
based on this guy’s own statements the answer should be no, but he says he can’t answer that.

jail notifies ICE that someone is released at 8:00 and ICE shows up at 8:20, that person has already been released. “the intent is not to hold for ICE.”

wes asked how many ice officers are currently assigned to this region. the ICE suit says “i’d prefer to keep that sensitive.”
says he has fewer than he needs, there are 300,000 “aliens” in virginia.

how is the number of agents not PUBLIC RECORD?!

sheriff says release information is public record. anyone can call and ask. but the issue here is proactive notification of ICE... this is a bad comparison.

ICE suit says they use discretion in cases of single parents and heads of household. bullshit.

says they DO prioritize based on severity of crime, in direct contradiction of the sheriff’s statement that they detain “based on how fast they can get there, not the severity of the charges.”
ICE suit says “5 or 6 child support cases” skew the numbers on 50 detainees

albemarle county commonwealths attorney tracci speaking now. jail notifies ICE when an unlawful immigrant is booked “we all agree on that.” wait, do we? i guess he means current practice.

if one more person says “we don’t know what we don’t know” i’m gonna smash these TVs like i’m a hair metal band on a bender.

tracci caping for ICE so hard right now. jesus. says attorneys have to have humility, can’t substitute their judgment for a law enforcement officer’s. that this is ultimately up to congress. we should be grateful to ICE.

note to self: never get charged with anything in albemarle county. i can’t imagine being prosecuted by this fucking asshole. sounds like he thinks prosecutorial discretion is something to wield like a bat.

“if a law enforcement agency asks for a courtesy, and it isn’t an undue burden, you do them that courtesy. that’s what you do in law enforcement, you help each other out.”
holding people illegally is just a COURTESY according to nelson county CA rutherford.

it would be UNFAIR TO ICE not to hold people AN EXTRA WEEK if that’s what ICE needs. this isn’t even in the table here. that’s just straight up unconstitutional. this man has lost his damn mind.

“that’s not always the right thing, there can be mishaps” wes on the universal need for law enforcement agencies to help each other out.
wes has come back to the fear that ICE makes mistakes & ruins lives a couple of times. thank you for being in there, Wes

not sure whose voice... being outside has more drawbacks than the cold. i think it’s rutherford scolding wes right now, though. accusing him of trying to undercut ICE.

the scorn in his voice when he refers to the people snapping for speakers, holding signs that say “ICE OUT OF ALBEMARLE”
i’d never heard of rutherford before two hours ago, but he seems dangerous.

“deportability, severity of crime, and flight risk” as factors. what is deportability? whether or not you have a bus going to honduras this week?

“there is an element of subjectivity to all legal analysis.” that seems like a shaky fucking basis for your organization’s policy on whose lives to ruin.

sorry, that last quote wasn’t even ICE. it was albemarle CA tracci. kind of worse.

sounds like they are having trouble with the idea of different notification policies for offenses in albemarle, nelson, & cville. maybe that’s too much to ask of folks who work at the jail. sheriff says he’s “for straight notification across the board”

sheriff’s doing what they always do. seizing one or two extreme examples, specifically about a probably fictional MS-13 member.
“now you’re asking me to make opinions” “that’s a lot of responsibility to put on my plate.”
he just wants to call ICE on everybody.

“the system works.”
oh, no. no no no no it does not.

i’ve been referring to the superintendent of the jail as the sheriff... i think that’s a typical setup? they are NOT the same person here. just substitute that in all previous tweets. from my seat outside at a picnic table, i can’t see faces or nameplates. my bad!

someone is arguing for NO notification. wish i could tell who that is. says if this were court, he’d motion to declare the ICE suit a hostile witness 🌶🔥
i think he’s from the cville CA’s office but is NOT CA platania.

clarification that he’s not asking for no fingerprinting, which triggers front end notification. just a cessation of release notifications.

it’s worrisome to me that they keep coming back to the idea that because uncertainly necessarily exists, they must take the most extreme action in all cases. this is not how justice works.

board member concerned about different rules by locality - what about if someone lives in nelson but commits a crime in the city?
(isn’t this a fairly simple question? it’d just be based on the location of the offense, right? i mean i’m no lawyer.)

sounds like they are going to vote to allow the three CA’s office to make their own policy & recommend it to the jail. doesn’t seem like that would be binding though?

hand wringing about whether this would cause undue burden on the CA’s office. not sure how that would even be an issue. wes says the city CA WANTS to do this. not a burden. the other two CA’s are in the room but don’t say anything.

i don’t know who it is, but a woman on the board is getting angrier and angrier. she keeps interrupting wes. says it’s not appropriate for the CA’s office to influence jail policy.

the problem with saying we should notify for all felonies is that it SOUNDS like “all serious crimes” except... not all felonies are serious crimes. this is problematic all the way down.

i know i’ve been spending too much time at city council, board, and commission meetings... even outside staring at an ancient tv, i can identify wes’ sigh.

“i’m just trying to figure out where we are.”
yeah girl, me too. what’s getting voted on?

motion:
ACRJ will notify ICE 48 hours in advance of release on all felony & DUI charges (for inmates for whom the proper ICE paperwork has been received? this is implied i guess)
some confusion now that the motion is being read.

“at some point we’re gonna vote. some people will vote yes, some people will vote no. with the amendment to the amendment...”
somewhere, a copy of roberts rules just burst into flames

“the problem with ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’ is we don’t know how often that’s an issue. ice won’t say how often they have information they can’t divulge.”
sure. ok. business is definitely getting done here.

ok, wes is reading... either his amendment or the motion? no one knows. jail will automatically notify on felonies and DUIs, will consult each CA on their preference re: misdemeanors. this makes as much sense as we’re gonna get.

4 ayes, 6 nos on wes’ amendment, which was effectively a substitute motion. i tried to capture the role call, but my thumbs stopped working.
now voting on sheriff harding’s original motion to keep the policy as-is. didn’t get the count, but it passed.

so that was a three hour meeting to vote to do nothing.

well that was lengthy and demoralizing. hadn’t intended to spend four hours sitting outside today. gotta hurry up and get to the school board/city council joint budget meeting now. thought i’d have time to go home in between... wishful thinking!

point of clarification: notification of release time and date is NOT required under the statute. it is current policy. everything up to that point is required. that’s optional. and they chose to continue that policy.