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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — ICE Out of Alexandria celebrated City Council's unanimous adoption Wednesday night of the FY 2027 budget, which included a $200,000 "cut" to the Alexandria Sheriff's Office. The coalition called the move "a small but meaningful step in pressuring the Sheriff to end his voluntary collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
The $200,000 was deleted from the Sheriff's Office's general fund operating allocation and redirected to fund a jail operational efficiency study. It represents less than 0.6% of the office's $35.85 million current operating budget.
No council member mentioned ICE during Wednesday's adoption meeting, nor during the April 18 public hearing where Casey and dozens of speakers on both sides testified. Council framed the $200,000 delete throughout the budget process as an efficiency measure tied to underutilized jail capacity and uncertain federal contract revenue, not as an immigration policy lever. The proposal passed 4-2 at the April 21 preliminary Add/Delete work session, with Mayor Alyia Gaskins casting the decisive fourth vote.
The ICE Out of Alexandria coalition framed the vote differently in a press release issued Wednesday night: as a rebuke of Sheriff Sean Casey, who took office in 2022 and who the coalition says has transferred 142 people to ICE custody on administrative warrants since then. The Sheriff's Office's own published data shows 142 transfers across 2022 through 2025, matching the coalition's count.
"This small budget cut is an important beginning," Melissa Petisa, a community organizer with the coalition, said in the release. "We hope the Sheriff's office will read the shifting winds and see they must end their cruel policy of collaboration with ICE."
Ryan Belmore
A long-running standoff
Wednesday's vote is the latest move in a standoff that has been building for more than a year between immigrant-rights advocates, City Council, and Casey's office.
Casey is a constitutional officer under the Virginia Constitution — independently elected by Alexandria voters, not appointed by or directly accountable to the council or the city manager. Council's authority over the Sheriff's Office is largely confined to setting the office's annual appropriation; council cannot direct Casey's policies, hire or fire personnel, or compel a change in operational practice. That structural reality has shaped the year-long dispute. Advocates pursued council action in part because the budget is one of the few formal levers the city has when it disagrees with a constitutional officer's policy decisions. Council's November statement was framed as a request, not a directive, for the same reason.
The coalition began organizing in mid-2025 and packed council chambers monthly, calling on members to take a public position. On November 12, the council issued a unanimous collective statement, read by Gaskins after a closed session.
"We do not support any voluntary participation by the Sheriff's Office in ICE immigration procedures," Gaskins said. "We call upon the Sheriff to cease his transfer of persons in his custody in response to ICE administrative detainers and warrants."
The November statement asked Casey to follow the practice of sheriffs in Arlington and Fairfax counties, which since 2022 have required judicial warrants — signed by judges — before transferring custody to ICE, declining to honor the administrative warrants ICE issues itself.
Casey did not change his policy.
In the months that followed, the coalition shifted strategy from rhetoric to budget pressure, asking the council to cut the Sheriff's Office allocation as the only lever of accountability remaining. Speakers cited the figure publicly through the spring, and the proposal that ultimately became law took shape as a $200,000 delete sponsored by Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley and Councilman Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi to fund a jail operational efficiency study — a different framing from the coalition's, but the same dollar destination.
Casey's position
Casey has consistently held that he does not have legal discretion to refuse the transfers and does not "collaborate" with ICE. In an extensive public statement on the Sheriff's Office website, last updated March 26, Casey wrote that the Alexandria Sheriff's Office "does not and will not conduct immigration enforcement in our community while I serve as Sheriff" and that the office does not arrest or detain anyone in the community based on immigration status.
He has pointed to several Virginia Code provisions — particularly § 53.1-220.2, which authorizes sheriffs to transfer custody to ICE — as creating obligations he cannot lawfully refuse. He cites Code § 19.2-83.2 and § 53.1-218 as requiring sheriffs to ask citizenship questions of those arrested on felony charges and to share that information with ICE.
"Following the law is not optional, it is mandatory," Casey said in the published statement. "I do not have the authority to refuse to follow legal procedures established by state law or by Congress."
Casey says he refused former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's push for 287(g) agreements, ended ICE's ability to house immigration detainees in the jail, and supports Gov. Abigail Spanberger's reversal of Youngkin's policy. The Sheriff's Office's annual transfer numbers — 12 in 2022, 33 in 2023, 43 in 2024, and 54 in 2025 — sit well below the 147 transfers in 2012 and 121 in 2018 under previous sheriffs.
The coalition and the Sheriff's Office disagree on whether the transfers Casey continues to make are required by law. The coalition cites attorneys from the ACLU of Virginia, the Legal Aid Justice Center and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center who say a judicial warrant is required. Casey's published response says no Virginia statute or federal law requires a judicial warrant for ICE to assume custody, and that Arlington and Fairfax sheriffs have adopted that requirement on their own — without statutory authority — since 2022.
Casey has also emphasized the financial stakes of his federal contract. The Sheriff's Office contract with the U.S. Marshals Service generates approximately $7.3 million annually — about 20% of the office's budget — and explicitly requires compliance with federal law. Casey has said unilaterally refusing ICE transfers could trigger termination of that contract, with significant downstream impact on the city's revenue and the jail's workforce.
Ryan Belmore
The budget cut, in context
The $200,000 cut is small in proportion to the Sheriff's Office's overall budget but represents one of the most contested items in this year's process. Casey testified against the cut at the April 18 public hearing on Add/Delete proposals, where dozens of speakers on both sides filled the council chambers.
The coalition's Wednesday-night release described the scene from its perspective. "Dozens of uniformed and armed deputies packed the room well before the public hearing began, pushing over a hundred residents into an overflow room out of Council's sight," Tess McEnery, an IOA member who spoke at the April 18 hearing, said in the release.
Casey has previously said his office already conducted a comprehensive jail staffing study in 2025 through the National Institute of Corrections, a Department of Justice-affiliated body, which produced a 67-page report. He has argued a second study would duplicate that work and divert resources from an already underfunded operation.
At the April 21 work session, the delete passed 4-2, with Gaskins casting the decisive fourth vote. The proposal became part of the package adopted unanimously Wednesday night, with no separate roll call.
What didn't happen
Wednesday's adoption did not change Casey's policy on ICE transfers. It did not include any ordinance language conditioning Sheriff's Office funding on a change in policy. Council members did not address ICE in their remarks before voting on the operating budget.
What did happen: the city redirected $200,000 to study the jail's operations, advocates declared a partial victory, and Casey now operates with a budget approximately $93,523 smaller than the prior year through the elimination of one vacant deputy position — and approximately $200,000 redirected from his control to a council-commissioned consulting study.
The next institutional flashpoint is unclear. Council's November statement remains the body's official position. Casey's published policy remains his. The coalition has signaled it will continue pressing.
The FY 2027 budget takes effect July 1.
