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Far-left DC suburb tells residents to call 911 if they see ICE
By Charles Creitz
Published January 27, 2026
One of the most liberal municipalities in Virginia urged its residents to report sightings of ICE agents to emergency services as if they were common criminals spotted on the street.
The chairman of the Arlington County Board of Supervisors also took a shot at recently departed Gov. Glenn Youngkin for forging a 287(g) state-federal cooperation agreement with the Department of Homeland Security — which new Gov. Abigail Spanberger has since rescinded.
The largely wealthy, dense community of 245,000 people lies directly west of Washington, D.C., spanning the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan National Airport northward to the Chain Bridge, and has long been the anchor of Democratic might in the Old Dominion.
At this week’s board meeting, Chairman Matt de Ferranti, a Democrat from Rock Spring, urged Arlingtonians to remember that county law prohibits all residents and "public safety professionals… from interfering with the enforcement of federal immigration law."
Drivers are welcomed to Virginia near Lee Highway in Arlington. (Getty)
Instead, he said, residents can alert county authorities to federal immigration enforcement and stay out of the way themselves.
"That is not just to follow the law, but to do everything possible to protect our neighbors and reduce harm. That means working together to call ‘911’ when you see ICE in our community."
De Ferranti said calling 911 helps officials know that ICE is present and then pivot to "pursu[ing] Arlington County’s law enforcement mission: preventing violence in our community."
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Arlington County Supervisor Matt de Ferranti, a Rock Spring Democrat. (Craig Hudson/Getty Images)
"It also helps us know they have no legal requirement to tell us when they come into our community."
He claimed ICE’s enforcement approach is "designed to provoke and seek out conflict" and that going door-to-door seeking "undocumented individuals" is wrong.
Spanberger received the board’s praise for rescinding the 287(g) collaboration, as de Ferranti said it was a policy that Arlington "has never allowed — because it has been and always will continue to be inconsistent with our values, [but] that our previous governor followed."
ICE agents seek out a suspect in Manassas, near Arlington. (Melina Mara/Getty Images)
The development comes months after Arlington made headlines in the case of David Cabrera, a twice-deported Guatemalan national and convicted rapist, the handling of which by officials in the Virginia county drew the explicit ire of ICE Director Todd Lyons in July.
Lyons told Fox News that the county board had, the month prior, rescinded a policy allowing limited police cooperation with his agency in cases of terrorism, gang activity or felonies.
Cabrera had been arrested in June on a probation violation, but Arlington released him from its adult detention center in Court House, Virginia, ignoring a federal detainer.
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"You have an individual that is the worst of the worst, someone convicted of rape, and we had the opportunity to deport him… and they don’t want to turn that individual over the right way," Lyons said.
Arlington County Democratic Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said at the time that ICE wrongly targets people accused of but not always convicted of crimes – citing alleged situations involving ICE corralling suspects who appeared in court but before their cases were settled.
Later Tuesday, a Minnesota lawmaker echoed de Ferranti’s request.
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Arlington, Virginia, an immediate suburb of Washington, D.C., is seen on a hazy afternoon. (iStock via Getty Images)
Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat running for Senate, told left-wing activist Rev. Al Sharpton on his MS-Now program that it is "no time for ‘Minnesota Nice’" and that people should call 911 if ICE comes to their business’ parking lot.
Meanwhile, de Ferranti’s comments were lambasted online, with a former Arlington resident declaring the county "leftist nut central," while Virginia resident and Club for Growth analyst Andrew Follett predicted "people will die because of this."
"Heart attacks, robberies, and a million other things will go unanswered in Arlington because the switchboard will be clogged by idiots," he said.
"Look at what they are doing in Virginia," added conservative commentator Mike Cernovich on X.
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"That’s the bullet we dodged at the national level; for now."
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.
Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/far-left-dc-suburb-tells-residents-call-911-if-see-ice