PRESENT: All the Justices MICHAEL V. McCLARY, ET AL. OPINION BY v. Record No. 191132 JUSTICE S. BERNARD GOODWYN October 22, 2020 SCOTT H. JENKINS, ET AL. FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CULPEPER COUNTY Paul M. Peatross, Jr., Judge Designate In this appeal, we consider whether the circuit court erred in dismissing a suit by local taxpayers for declaratory and injunctive relief, filed against a sheriff and a locality concerning the sheriff’s cooperation agreement with the federal government, regarding the enforcement of federal immigration laws. BACKGROUND On April 24, 2018, the sheriff of Culpeper County, Scott H. Jenkins (Sheriff Jenkins), entered into an agreement with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g) (the 287(g) Agreement 1). The 287(g) Agreement authorizes Sheriff Jenkins, and his officers, to interrogate any person they detain about the person’s right to be or remain in the United States, to serve warrants for immigration violations, to administer oaths and take evidence to complete alien processing, to prepare charging documents, to issue immigration detainers, and to detain and transport arrested aliens who are subject to removal to an ICE-approved detention facility. The 287(g) Agreement also provides that those officers in the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office 1 These agreements are often called “287(g)” agreements because Section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1357, as amended, authorizes such agreements. See Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996); see also Homeland Security Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135 (2002). participating in the operation of the 287(g) Agreement “will exercise their immigration-related authorities only during the course of their normal duties.” On November 28, 2018, having learned that Sheriff Jenkins entered into the 287(g) Agreement with ICE to enforce federal immigration law, Michael V. McClary (McClary) and Christina Stockton (Stockton), as residents and taxpayers of Culpeper County, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Culpeper County against Sheriff Jenkins and the Board of Supervisors of Culpeper County (the Board), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. McClary and Stockton seek to have the courts prohibit the alleged use of local tax revenue to enforce federal immigration law and assert that use of local funds for that purpose is unlawful. They state, in their complaint, that the Board “appropriates certain funds” from its general fund to the sheriff’s office. No specific appropriation regarding the 287(g) Agreement is alleged, but they assert that the Board had knowledge of Sheriff Jenkins’ intention to enter into the 287(g) Agreement, and the Board “[did] not restrict[] Sheriff Jenkins’ use of any previous, current, or future appropriations to prevent him from using local tax revenue to pay for salaries, costs, and expenses related to the unlawful 287(g) Agreement.” In their complaint, McClary and Stockton seek declaratory judgments against Sheriff Jenkins and the Board. Regarding Sheriff Jenkins, they request ...
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals