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Gov. Abigail Spanberger has formally ended an agreement with the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement that had allowed Virginia State Police troopers and Virginia Department of Corrections officers to assist ICE.
The agreement 鈥� which stems from Gov. Glenn Youngkin鈥檚 administration 鈥斅� had effectively placed state law enforcement under federal control and supervision to conduct civil immigration enforcement.
Ending the agreements was a campaign promise of Spanberger鈥檚 last year when she said tasking state and local law enforcement to help with federal law enforcement was a 鈥�.鈥�
She said she鈥檇 rather law enforcement focus on its core duties than serve as deputies to ICE.
Executive Order 12 builds on her earlier that gave her the option to end the agreement that Order 12 now rescinds.
The order directs all state law enforcement agencies to review policies, training and practices to ensure they align with standards of protecting human life and to 鈥渘ot engage in fear-based policing, enforcement theater, or actions that create barriers to people seeking assistance in their time of need.鈥�
Spanberger pointed to national conversations around ICE鈥檚 tactics in a meeting with the news media on Wednesday. As President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration has had the agency hyper-focused on Minneapolis in recent weeks, American citizens like and have been killed by agents.
鈥淚 think it has brought the conversation to the forefront,鈥� Spanberger said of how their deaths helped inspire her new order.
Drawing on her own background in law enforcement, she emphasized that the order is intended to reinforce accountability, public service, and safety.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 extraordinarily important to make sure that we are celebrating, and honoring and recognizing the strong vetting, the strong training, and the incredibly high standards that here in the commonwealth of Virginia, we hold our law enforcement agencies to,鈥� Spanberger said. 鈥淲e want to make sure that we鈥檙e making a clear line in the sand about what is expected of our law enforcement officials.鈥�
Republicans, however, offered a sharply different view.
Sen. Glenn Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield said in reaction Wednesday that he believes the order reflects Spanberger 鈥減utting politics over public safety.鈥�
, the majority of the thousands of people detained by ICE in Virginia had no criminal histories.
With Virignia鈥檚 legislature and governorship now under Democratic control 鈥� at a time when聽 President Donald Trump has targeted Democratic-led states 鈥� immigration advocates and civil rights groups the commonwealth could become the next focal point for ICE enforcement.
Some Republican lawmakers have suggested Trump could retaliate against Virginia over Spanberger鈥檚 actions. Del. Karen Hamilton, R-Culpeper, speculated in a recent social media post that the president could following Spanberger鈥檚 previous ICE-related order 鈥� a move against localities that declined to cooperate with ICE.
When asked Wednesday whether he believes Trump might retaliate, Sturtevant said, 鈥渨e鈥檒l see.鈥�
鈥淎t the end of the day,鈥� he added, 鈥渨e know we have criminal illegal aliens here in Virginia. We have federal law enforcement, whose job it is to go and identify, find, and deport these individuals. We had been working constructively with those federal partners to do that.鈥�
Spanberger, meanwhile, said her order does not prohibit cooperation between state agencies and ICE under limited circumstances, such as participation in special task forces or when ICE presents聽 judicial warrants requesting assistance.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a clear delineation,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut taking Virginia law enforcement, state agency personnel, and basically giving them over to ICE, is something that ends today.鈥�
Virginia Mercury reporter Shannon Heckt contributed to this story.
