Prince William Times 07/29/2020

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HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS TARGET WINTER RETURN: VHSL plan passes 34-1. Page 8

July 29, 2020 | Vol. 19, No. 31 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | 50¢ Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

See PrinceWilliamTimes.com for coronavirus updates

Post 287(g), jail board debates when to call ICE By Daniel Berti and Jill Palermo Times Staff Writers

A Manassas man who remained behind bars at the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center for 20 days to avoid being picked up by immigration officers dropped his lawsuit against Sheriff Glendell Hill and jail Superintendent Pete Meletis last week after he was released on a $150 fine without incident. For Luis Paz, it was a gamble. He could have bonded out shortly after his June 27 arrest for driving without a license and giving false identification to police -- two misdemeanors that his lawyers said rarely land anyone in jail. But Paz was afraid to take that route because he knew U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had lodged a detainer against him and could take him into custody directly from the jail if he were kept long enough for ICE officers to retrieve him. Paz was one of the first local inmates to leave the jail with an ICE de-

“The majority of the folks that get caught up by detainers this way and get deported are undocumented but have been here for years. They have kids here. They are otherwise productive members of our community,” TRACEY LENOX Jail Board member and head of the Prince William public defenders’ office.

tainer after the jail board decided June 17 to let its 287(g) agreement with ICE expire over concerns the 13-year-old program eroded trust between local police and the county’s sizable Hispanic community and resulted in the deportation of immigrants charged with only low-level crimes. ICE officer Henry Lucero told the jail board during its June 17 meeting that Prince William County led the commonwealth in ICE detainers while the 287(g) agreement was in place. Lucero told the Prince William Times that ICE had deported 579 people picked up on detainers from the local jail since 2018, including 125 who either had not yet been convicted or had their criminal charges dismissed.

Fearing he could get picked up by ICE, Paz filed a lawsuit against Hill and Meletis in early July, charging the two would be acting outside their authority if they held him after his release now that the 287(g) agreement had expired. The case was filed pro bono by Alexandria attorney Sebastian Norton. When Paz was declined an emergency hearing before a judge last week, he faced a choice: Stay in jail until his case was heard, likely in several weeks, or accept a plea deal and risk being detained by ICE. Paz chose the latter, and probably got lucky, said his defense attorney, Jessica Foster. Paz appeared in court at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 17, pleaded no contest to his charges, and was released

at 2:30 p.m. without ICE involvement, Foster said. “I know his wife was very happy, very relieved,” Norton said of Paz, who declined a request to be interviewed for this article.

For the jail board, a new debate

Although Paz’s case was resolved in his favor, his lawsuit sparked yet another debate for the jail board: whether the jail should call ICE to inform the agency of the release of all inmates for whom ICE has issued a detainer, or whether the jail should do so only for inmates charged with more serious, felony crimes. Since the 287(g) agreement expired on July 1, the jail no longer keeps inmates with ICE detainers past their release times for ICE. After Paz filed his lawsuit, both Meletis and Hill confirmed that practice had ended. See ICE, page 2

County board deadlocks on asphalt plant New vote set for Sept. 8 By Daniel Berti

Times Staff Writer

On one side of Bethlehem Road are townhomes and an elementary school. On the other side is a vacant, aging concrete plant that construction firm Allan Myers wants to turn into a new asphalt manufacturing plant. Allan Myers, based in Pennsylvania, has the construction contract for the Interstate 66 project, a $2 billion, 25-mile undertaking that will add high-occupancy-vehicle toll lanes along the corridor. The project has been under construction since late 2017 and isn’t expected to finish until late 2022. The only thing stopping the company from moving forward is the Prince William Board of County Supervisors who deadlocked on Tuesday, July 21, on a proposal to deny a special use permit for the plant. The

board declined to take up a motion to approve the permit, opting instead to defer the discussion until their Sept. 8 meeting. The board recorded a tie vote, 4-4, on a motion to deny the permit made by Supervisor Pete Candland, R-Gainesville. The site of the proposed plant is in the Gainesville District. Supervisors Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville, Yesli Vega, R-Coles, and Kenny Boddye, D-Occoquan, joined Candland in voting to deny the special use permit. Board Chair Ann Wheeler, D-At Large, and Supervisors Victor Angry, D-Neabsco, Margaret Angela Franklin, D-Woodbridge, and Andrea Bailey, D-Potomac, voted against the denial. With no supervisors willing to change their position, the board decided to delay the vote to a later date. The vote came after more than a dozen area residents urged the board to reject the special use

PHOTO BY ROGER SYNDER

Residents of western Prince William County are registering their opposition to a proposed new asphalt manufacturing plant that they say would be too close to an existing asphalt plant and Mullen Elementary School, as well as the Kessler Ridge neighborhood. permit, citing concerns about increased truck traffic on nearby roads, reduced property values and pollution in the vicinity of Mullen Elementary school. Becky Barnett, a resident of Kes-

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Opinion.................................................6 Puzzle Page........................................20 Real Estate............................................9

sler Ridge – a community with about 95 homes located across the street from the proposed asphalt plant – said she is worried about the environmental impacts. See ASPHALT, page 2

88 DULLES, VA


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