Spanberger says she would rescind Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order aimed at addressing illegal immigration
As federal authorities arrest thousands of illegal immigrants in Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger is pledging to rescind Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that requires state police to cooperate with ICE.
“I would rescind his executive order, yes,” Spanberger told the Virginia Mercury in an interview earlier this month that was reported Wednesday. The order gives “state police and corrections officers authority to perform certain immigration duties” and urges “local jails to fully cooperate with federal deportation operations,” according to the Mercury.
Youngkin in the order described his goals as “maximizing our collaboration with the federal government to enforce immigration law” and “using all available methods to facilitate the arrest and deportation of inadmissible and removable criminal illegal immigrants.”
Spanberger told the Mercury that the order tears “families apart” and wastes local resources.
ICE agents have made at least 4,179 arrests across Virginia since President Donald Trump took office in January, more than five times the number of arrests made during the same time period last year, according to data obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In July, Youngkin announced that the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force, a federal-state partnership established early this year, arrested 2,512 “violent criminals who are illegally in the United States,” according to a press release.
As Spanberger vows to block police from cooperating with ICE, her Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, supports Youngkin’s order and has praised Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“Working together, the Governor, Attorney General, and I have made Virginia safer,” Earle-Sears, a naturalized citizen who was born in Jamaica, said at the time. “We supported more funding for law enforcement and tackled violent crimes in our cities. Now, working with President Trump, we can take on the scourge of dangerous and violent illegal immigrants.”
Youngkin and Earle-Sears’s administration has also unveiled a “No Sanctuary Cities” budget proposal. “Under Governor Youngkin’s leadership, Virginia stands firm: we are not a sanctuary state,” Earle-Sears said at the time, adding, “The rule of law is not negotiable—it is the foundation of our safety, our freedom, and the promise of opportunity that defines America.”
A recent poll by Roanoke College found the race narrowing, with Spanberger holding a 7-point lead over Earle-Sears, down from a 17-point lead in May.
