Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, took to a handful of Northern Virginia neighborhoods this week.
No information about the raids has been released, but immigration advocates are pushing back.
Northern Virginia activists chanted "HERE TO STAY!" at a news conference held Tuesday afternoon after ICE swept through a number of area communities starting Monday.
Questions about the number of detainees, the crimes those detained were charged with, or which local agencies they may have worked with were all met without comment from the agency.
An ICE spokesperson told Radio IQ, “By policy and for the safety of our officers, ICE does not comment on ongoing operations.”
John Cano is with the Legal Aid Justice Center. They run a hotline where folks can ask for help locating those who have been detained. He said they’ve received nearly 200 calls since Monday morning. As of Tuesday afternoon, they’ve been able to locate four detainees, but that number could be as high as 12.
Cano also said ICE is conducting raids differently than they have in the past. Usual raids involve going to someone’s home, but now, “a lot of these individuals that have been detained have been walking down the street with no criminal record, no prior order, they just happen to be walking to work at that time ICE encountered them.”
The raids come days after Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order which directed state troopers and corrections officers to work with federal ICE agents.
In a statement, Virginia State Police said they had entered into an agreement with ICE which will allow them to aid federal authorities to “remove dangerous criminals [italics their own] that are not in the country legally.” However, training to make federal arrests had not finished yet.
"For security reasons and the safety of officers, we are not able to comment on specifics of any ongoing operation," the statement read, matching ICE's posture.
Back at the news conference in Northern Virginia, a woman who only identified herself as Nadia said fear was running rampant.
“They decided that we’re criminals. But we’re not, we’re community," she told the crowd in both Spanish and English. "They criminalize every single community everywhere they go and push us out. But we’re here to tell them we’re not going anywhere.”
ICE has used its website to announce successful detainments; the last post about action in Virginia was from last week.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
