Candidate Ignites Race For Sheriff In Loudoun

Ahlemann Targets Illegal Immigration

By Bill Brubaker (Contact)

Friday, October 12, 2007

A pastor's son and former motorcycle cop who wants to be the next sheriff of Loudoun County wears a large, colorful tattoo on his left forearm — an affirmation, he says, of his moral, political and religious convictions.

One side of Gregory J. Ahlemann's tattoo shows an American colonial flag. "It's there to show our nation was founded on Christian values but that as a nation we are moving away from this," he said, citing divorce, abortion and premarital sex as prime culprits.

And in some ways, Loudoun is losing its way, too, Ahlemann was quick to add, by not aggressively targeting illegal immigrants — a population that he said is improperly using public services and committing a "rising number" of crimes.

Ahlemann said he has no idea how many illegal immigrants live in Loudoun. Nor does he know many are committing crimes. Those statistics do not exist, he said. "It's so hard to say who is here illegally and who is actually a criminal," he said.

In the run-up to the Nov. 6 election, the tall, outspoken former Loudoun deputy who once wrote 200 traffic tickets in a single month has turned what is usually a low-key sheriff's race into a lively referendum on whether Ahlemann is right when he says illegal immigrants are making the county a more dangerous place to live.

"Greg Ahlemann is wrong," said three-term incumbent Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson, who lost the Republican nomination to Ahlemann in the spring and is running as an independent. "Ahlemann is throwing this stuff out there as though it's gospel. There's no evidence what he's saying is true. But I think he could sell ice to an Eskimo."

The Democratic candidate, Michael E. George, a former narcotics and organized crime detective who helped create Fairfax County's gang intelligence unit in the mid-1990s, said Ahlemann is trying to ride the anti-illegal-immigrant bandwagon.

Gregory J. Ahlemann

"Ahlemann has one platform, and he thinks this is the hot ticket to winning an election," said George, chief investigator for the Recording Industry Association of America, a Washington-based trade group.

It's a volatile issue. Last month, the Herndon Town Council voted to shut down a controversial publicly funded hiring center for day laborers. And in recent months, Loudoun and Prince William county officials have been debating how far they should go in cracking down on illegal immigrants who use county services or commit crimes.

"I mean, I'm not for illegal immigration," said George, a Loudoun resident for 27 years. "But I've found that most people who are here illegally come to work. They know they are illegal, so they try to stay under the radar."

George said Loudoun's top law enforcement priority should be preparing for a terrorist attack, especially since the county is home to Dulles International Airport.

Simpson points to gang activity, terrorism and the increasing volume of traffic on Loudoun roads as the top issues, noting that only one in 20 gang members who were arrested in the county over the past year was an illegal immigrant.

But Ahlemann, who has been knocking on doors during his campaign, said many long-time Loudoun residents — especially in heavily Hispanic Sterling Park — blame illegal immigrants for what they perceive as an increase in crime.

At a recent debate in Leesburg, Ahlemann said the large number of Sterling Park residents who don't speak English suggests there are illegal immigrants. He made that same assumption, he said, when he patrolled th community's streets as a deputy. "I know that many of the people that I arrested initially who had no identification couldn't speak any English — I'm just going to guess that they might have been here illegally," he said.

Ahlemann said he might have better data if Simpson had agreed some years back to enroll his deputies in a special U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement training program that empowers deputies to verify the immigration status of detainees.

Simpson said he did not want to participate in the program at first, because federal authorities wanted a guarantee that they could rent space in the overcrowded Loudoun jail to house detainees while they awaited deportation hearings.

In an April campaign letter, Ahlemann said Simpson's "passive attitude" has contributed to "the rapid rise in illegal immigrant gang activity" in Loudoun. And he predicted "more crime by illegal aliens will spill over on our schools and highways."

In early May, Simpson said he applied to join the training program after federal officials agreed to limit the stay of federal detainees to 72 hours in the Loudoun jail.

"Sheriff Simpson Flip-Flops," Ahlemann wrote in a campaign letter several days later.

The letter included a photo of a smiling Simpson with a smiling former President Jimmy Carter, who once made a book-signing stop in Loudoun. Carter, Ahlemann wrote, is "perhaps best known for his incompetence and botched approaches" to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Simpson said he is proud of the photo and others he has taken with President Bush and former President Bill Clinton.

Simpson is awaiting final approval from federal officials to enter the federal training program. But on Tuesday, Oct. 9 he participated in a news conference in which customs officials announced the arrests of 1,313 gang members and illegal immigrants in 23 cities in 19 states. Thirteen of those arrests were made in Loudoun, and four of those suspects were being held on immigration charges.

Ahlemann sparred with Simpson's management team when he worked in the sheriff's department, complaining of low morale and unethical behavior by some employees. And last year, Ahlemann started a Web site to vent his frustrations. The site did not identify Ahlemann or name his employer. But it trumpeted his religious and political views and offered a T-shirt ($10) emblazoned with the American colonial flag, the Israeli flag and a thorny wooden cross — the same design he later had tattooed on his forearm.

"It's my personal logo," Ahlemann said.

The Israeli flag, he said, signals his belief that Christians should stand up for Israel because biblically, "the Jews are God's chosen people."

Ahlemann turned in his deputy's badge in January and almost immediately announced his candidacy. He took down his Web site and wore long sleeves on the campaign trail, lest anyone get the wrong idea about that eight-by-four-inch tattoo. "Some people might not consider my tattoo professional," he said. Ahlemann declined to be photographed showing it.

Ahlemann said his campaign has been partly financed by his father, who is a minister with congregations in Loudoun and the northern Shenandoah Valley. At a recent service, the Rev. James "Jay" Ahlemann seemed the proud father, predicting his son will be the next Loudoun sheriff.

Pastor Ahlemann told the congregation that his son never hid the tattoo from motorists, which included "people that wore all these turbans and stuff."

A few moments later, the minister launched an attack on Islam, calling it "a religion of hatred and of death." And he said Muslims "want to either convert us or kill us."

In a recent interview, Greg Ahlemann sought to distance himself from his father's comments, saying there are extremists in all faiths.

Thinking about the job he soon hopes to have, Ahlemann said: "From a sheriff's perspective, you are paid to enforce the law. If someone has a religious view that's different from yours, that doesn't matter. Whether they have committed a crime or they are a victim of a crime, I will treat them all the same."

Tagged: elections

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