HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — Harrisonburg Police Chief Joe Tucker recently addressed the relationship between the Harrisonburg Police Department (HPD) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a joint meeting with the City Council and the School Liaison Committee.

Noting recent unfounded rumors of a heightened presence of ICE in the city, Chief Tucker said HPD is working through lines of communication for Homeland Security to prevent similar issues in the future.

Chief Tucker then clarified there are limits to how much the department will help ICE if operations were to increase.

“Just to make it very clear, we will not assist them in the civil immigration removal, but as I’ve also said, we won’t obstruct either. So, we’ll assist in criminal matters but nothing civil,” said Chief Tucker.

School Superintendent Dr. Michael Richards added that the division works with a community task force to respond to known ICE activity by supporting school families in whatever way they can without obstructing federal operations as well.