Governor Abigail Spanberger was inaugurated Saturday, and with it issued a series of day one executive orders. Among them is one giving her the option to end a relationship initiated by former governor Glenn Youngkin between Virginia State Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
According to numbers obtained by The Virginian-Pilot's Kate Seltzer, as of November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, had detained over 6,200 people since former Youngkin entered into a 287(g) agreement with the federal agency early last year. That agreement deputizes Virginia State Police to assist ICE in its roundup of residents.
Youngkin said their target was “violent illegals,” but ICE data suggests about 70 percent of those detained in Virginia’s two ICE facilities have no criminal record.
And Saturday, shortly after her inauguration, Governor Spanberger signed an order that gives her "the option to remove Virginia State Police from this agreement," according to a gubernatorial spokesperson.
Spanberger had promised to nix the order on the campaign trail.
When asked if or when she expected the relationship between the state and federal agencies to end, the spokesperson declined to comment.
Spanberger did mention immigration as part of her inauguration day speech.
"In Virginia, our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant neighbors will know that when we say — we’ll focus on the security and safety of all of our neighbors, we mean them too," Spanberger said.
In a statement sent after the speech, Virginia's House Minority leader Terry Kilgore said Spanberger's withdrawal from the agreement would be "reckless."
"This decision allows criminal illegal immigrants to remain in our communities and commit crimes over and over again by shielding them from cooperation with federal law enforcement," the Gate City Republican said. "That is not public safety."
Luis Aguilar with the immigrant rights group CASA told Radio IQ he was seeing pictures, though unverified, of alleged ice enforcement stretching from Henrico County up to Woodbridge and beyond. Among confirmed ICE activity was raids in Alexandria; he said it left locals terrified.
He hopes Spanberger will end the relationship soon.
“Things aren’t safer because ICE is going door-to-door,” Aguilar said. “When a president chooses to utilize authoritarian tactics and scapegoats a specific community, we have to say no.”
President Donald Trump has called states and localities that fail to enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE “sanctuary cities.” It was one of the justifications cited for the crackdown in Minnesota that saw one former Virginia resident, Renee Good, shot dead by federal agents.
But Ashland resident and poet Sheri Burton, among the crowd for Saturday's inauguration, thinks Spanberger is ready for whatever Trump sends to the Commonwealth.
“If [Trump] thinks he’s gonna send ICE here in Virginia, hey, he’s barking up the wrong tree,” Burton told Radio IQ.
Other EOs deal with assessing the current state of the Commonwealth’s education system, a review of state college Board of Visitors appointment process and other affordability and housekeeping measures.
The move comes as Democrats in the Virginia legislature are submitting their own legislative efforts to rein in ICE.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
