Sanctuary Police Chief Suspends Officer Who Helped Catch Illegal Alien Fugitive

The police chief of Fairfax County, Virginia — a sanctuary county that shields criminal illegal aliens from deportation — has suspended one of his officers who helped federal immigration officials catch an illegal alien fugitive.

Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. announced on Tuesday that he suspended an officer from his duties pending an investigation after he learned that he aided the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in locating and arresting a wanted illegal alien, a violation of the county’s sanctuary policy that shields illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.

According to Roessler, an officer was handling a traffic accident in Alexandria, Virginia on September 21 when he noticed that one of the drivers involved did not have a driver’s license. That’s when the officer obtained the man’s information to check state DMV records.

At this time, the officer received confirmation from ICE agents that the man was, in fact, an illegal alien who was wanted by federal officials after he skipped his deportation hearing. Then, the officer contacted ICE agents who advised him that they were in the area and wanted to pick up the illegal alien.

The officer issued a uniform summons to the illegal alien for driving without a license and took him into custody before turning him over to ICE agents. The illegal alien was released from ICE custody three hours later with an ankle monitor — a practice often used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Roessler said in the statement:

When I learned of this event, I directed an immediate internal investigation to look at all factors in this matter to ensure that all are held accountable for this violation. Our county is one of the most diverse counties in the nation and no one should have the perception that FCPD is acting as a civil immigration agent for ICE. This matter damages our reputation and the longstanding policy that I have stated many times that our officers shall not act as immigration agents.

In response, Roessler said the officer violated Fairfax County’s decades-long sanctuary county policy that bans officers from taking illegal aliens into custody solely because they are wanted by ICE and thus has been “relieved of all law enforcement duties pending the outcome” of an investigation.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, Fairfax County has become a central home to the violent MS-13 Gang from El Salvador in part thanks to the generous sanctuary county policy. The gang is made up mostly of illegal aliens from El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, posing as unaccompanied minor children.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.