As President Donald Trump expands immigration enforcement, Virginia legislators are looking to rein in some of those activities.
“I think we’re in the middle of a battle across the country that is likely to get worse before it gets better,” said Roanoke Democratic Delegate Sam Rasoul on what he expects from President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement in the Commonwealth.
Though Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and its fallout are already here.
Ryan Durazo is an attorney with the immigrant assistance group Ayuda. He works with children and those who've survived human trafficking and domestic violence.
One of his clients, a school aged boy in Fredericksburg who has protected status, committed an infraction at school and, Durazo said, his school resource officer called ICE.
“Within a matter of hours they came to his foster home, put him in handcuffs and transported him across state lines where he couldn’t be reached,” Durazo said.
Among expected bills is one to address ICE cooperation with school resource officers.
Other Virginia-linked ICE incidents include reports of a man pretending to be a federal agent in Prince William County, and the infamous shooting of Old Dominion University graduate Renee Good in Minnesota.
And recent enforcement in Richmond's Southside Rosewood neighborhood inspired Delegate-turned-Senator Mike Jones to submit a bill making it a misdemeanor for any law-enforcement officer to wear a mask.
"Many families in my district are alarmed by unfamiliar vehicles with masked occupants parked outside their homes," Jones said.
And in the wake of ICE nabbing folks from courthouses, like in Chesterfield County, Fairfax City Democratic Senator Saddam Salim wants to empower local courts to limit ICE’s ability to make such arrests.
“No one goes into the courthouse if they're criminals unless they’re already handcuffed," Salim said. "There should be protections for anyone who goes into the court system and comes out without that fear of ICE lurking in the background.”
Born in Bangladesh, Salim said members of the South Asian community were beginning to fear being on the wrong side of Trump's immigration assault.
"They're getting confused as Hispanics or they're just bystanders where ICE activity occurs," Salim said, pointing to parts of his district that are some of the nation's most ethnically diverse. "They're coming to Bailey's Crossroads, Manassas, that's the cultural, racial mixing bowl."
"You used to get shot if someone looked like me," he added, before referring to Good's shooting. "But now you can get shot if you're white."
Senator Lashrecse Aird woke up Thursday morning to videos of ICE rounding up folks in her Petersburg district. She took to social media to offer resources to those who could face random search.
"This recent incident shows a need to address federal overreach, especially in already vulnerable communities," Aird said in a text to Radio IQ.
As for Republican interest in the issue, Hanover County Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle called immigration a distraction.
"We won't be distracted by federal issues over which we have limited control," McDougle said.
Specific legislation is still being worked out; the deadline for any new immigration law proposals is next week, but Rasoul thinks House Democratic leadership will rise to the challenge Trump has put before them.
"We are filled with people who are filled with people who will do everything we can at the state level to protect Virginians," he said.
As for legislators who might be unsure about addressing the issue, Durazo said it's a matter of rebuilding trust between law enforcement and diverse communities.
"Victims of human trafficking, who would testify against terrible perpetrators, no longer felt safe going to court," he said. "Let ICE be ICE, let police be police."
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
