Current and potential future Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Virginia have been in the spotlight this week.
One locality confirmed there would be no immigration detention facility in a former state prison while legislative efforts to limit ICE enforcement are advancing.
“Augusta Correctional Facility will not be sold for the purposes of establishing an ICE detention center,” said Augusta County Board of Supervisors chair Jeff Slaven Wednesday night. After conferring with Virginia’s Department of General Services and the governor’s office, Slaven read a statement saying the shuttered Augusta Correctional Center property in Craigsville will not become a detention facility for ICE.
The statement comes after Governor Abigail Spanberger rolled back a recommendation from her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, which aimed to see the facility sold for detention purposes. Spanberger’s office said that her only role was the rollback while DGS said the area’s agricultural zoning would be paramount in considering a future buyer.
"Based on our conversations with DGS, the agency has indicated that the property’s agricultural zoning, as approved by Augusta County, is an important factor in its decision-making, among other factors," the statement read. "While DGS is still negotiating the terms and conditions of the sale, the agency has indicated that Augusta Correctional Facility will not be sold for the purposes of establishing an ICE detention facility."
That was welcome news to Craigsville resident Linda Revas who spoke against the reopening of August at Wednesday’s meeting. She said she can see the facility from her driveway.
“The thought of… it is just absolutely sickening.," Revas said. "The thought of there being possibly a detention center anywhere, but right in our backyard?”
All of this news comes as a handful of bills aiming to limit ICE’s activity in the commonwealth are also seeing legislative success. Increased penalties for impersonating federal law-enforcement, mask bans for law enforcement, and limits on civil immigration arrests in schools, polling places, courthouses and hospitals all sailed through the House this week on party line votes. Similar bills in the Senate have also seen success.
But they didn't pass without a fight. House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore spoke out against the location-based civil arrest prohibitions saying they would make them less safe.
"Courthouses, hospitals, those are gun free zones," Kilgore warned. "When people have charges, where are they going to be? Court."
But bill patron Delegate Katrina Callsen said the bill set out clear parameters on how law enforcement should act in "sensitive locations."
"Any enforcement activity in these areas should be conducted transparently and with respect for due process," she said, pointing to recent arrests at Virginia courthouses, including in her Charlottesville district. "It is creating a chilling effect on our judicial system, making it so victims, witness and even those wishing to comply with our laws to come forward."
The bills' fate, after passing the opposite chamber in the coming weeks, will be up to Governor Spanberger.
And while immigration advocates welcomed the flurry of good news from Richmond and Augusta, they also wondered what it meant for the three other recently closed state detention centers.
"Governor Spanberger has an opportunity to send a clear message: that the Commonwealth invests in its communities, not in federal detention infrastructure," said immigration advocate Luis Aguilar with CASA.
