“Federal authorities should enforce federal civil immigration laws—law enforcement in the Commonwealth should prioritize the safety and security of all residents in Virginia, the enforcement of local and state laws, and coordination with federal entities on criminal matters. Accordingly, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor under Article V of the Constitution of Virginia and under the laws of the Commonwealth, I hereby rescind Executive Order No. 47 (2025), which is not an appropriate use of state or local resources.”
That a Jan. 17 executive order from newly sworn-in Virginia Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger rescinding a 2025 executive order from former Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin that implemented a “force multiplier” 287(g) program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deputize Virginia state and local police to execute limited immigration enforcement operations in the course of their duties.
Youngkin’s order included Virginia’s participation in the jail enforcement model and the task force model, described on ICE.gov, “The Jail Enforcement Model is designed to identify and process removable aliens — with criminal or pending criminal charges — who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies. The Task Force Model serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.”
The program was instituted under President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29, 2025 executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” and 8 U.S. Code Section 1357(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the latter of which provides, “the Attorney General may enter into a written agreement with a State, or any political subdivision of a State, pursuant to which an officer or employee of the State or subdivision, who is determined by the Attorney General to be qualified to perform a function of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States (including the transportation of such aliens across State lines to detention centers), may carry out such function at the expense of the State or political subdivision and to the extent consistent with State and local law.”
By removing the authority to enter the 287(g) program, Gov. Spanberger is taking the first towards making a Virginia a sanctuary state, by ending its partnership with ICE.
Further steps will undoubtedly be taken in Virginia’s legislature, where Democrats now have a large majority in the House of Delegates of 64 to 36 after the 2025 statewide elections. Democrats also have control the Commonwealth’s Senate 21 to 19 after the 2023 elections (the next elections for the Senate will be in 2027), giving Democrats the one-party trifecta statewide and the ability to move legislation at will.
For example, HB 916 as introduced “[p]rohibits any child in the Commonwealth from being denied a free public education through secondary school on the basis of the actual or perceived immigration or citizenship status of the child or the child’s parents,” according to the bill’s summary.
And HB 1260 mandates every public school prohibit immigration enforcement, introducing a warrant requirement for ICE: “Each … written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan shall include… [a] prohibition against any individual present on the property of a public elementary or secondary school in the school division to investigate compliance with, enforce, or assist in the investigation for compliance with or enforcement of any federal civil immigration law or any federal criminal immigration law that penalizes an individual’s presence in, entry or reentry into, or employment in the United States from accessing any nonpublic area of such school property without a warrant signed by a judge or magistrate.”
That particular bill appears designed to undermine enforcement under 8 U.S. Code Sec. 1857(a)(1) and (2) where under the heading “Powers Without Warrant”: “Any officer or employee of the Service authorized under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General shall have power without warrant— to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States; … to arrest any alien who in his presence or view is entering or attempting to enter the United States in violation of any law or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission, exclusion, expulsion, or removal of aliens, or to arrest any alien in the United States, if he has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest, but the alien arrested shall be taken without unnecessary delay for examination before an officer of the Service having authority to examine aliens as to their right to enter or remain in the United States…”
These are attempts to nullify federal law.
If these pass and are signed into law by Spanberger, Virginia would join sanctuary states and jurisdictions in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington with similar restrictions on immigration enforcement and ICE detainer requests.
Of course, federal law preempts state law, especially on questions of immigration, as Article I, Sec. 8 of the Constitution grants Congress power to “establish an uniform rule of naturalization … throughout the United States” and Article VI provides that the Constitution and all laws made pursuant to the Constitution are the “supreme law of the land”. There is no constitutional basis for states to block federal law from being enforced by the President. But such hindrances can slow down immigration enforcement, creating more dangerous confrontations with federal authorities in the sanctuary states and jurisdictions.
Now, with the 2026 Congressional midterms rapidly approaching, what Gov. Spanberger is telling not just Virginia, but the entire country, is that Democrats’ very first order of business in power will be to subvert and eventually undo federal immigration law, effectively codifying amnesty — underscoring the very deep divisions of the nation against itself. Blue states do not want to play ball.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
