PETERSBURG, Va. β A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in downtown Petersburg Wednesday morning drew immediate community response after video of the incident spread rapidly on social media.
The Facebook Live stream showed more than a half dozen law enforcement agents on the sidewalk beside the city's bus station on Union Street. Multiple sources confirmed to CBS 6 that the agents were working for ICE. The video was shared hundreds of times within an hour before being removed before noon.
"I literally got the call a few moments ago, 'Yo, ICE is in Petersburg, snatching people up,'" Petersburg businessman Ajani Sekov said.
Sekov said he immediately ran from his Washington Street shop to Union Street when he heard about the operation. He planned to intervene if he felt anyone's rights were being violated.
"We're a small, tight-knit community and we're going to stand together. I promise you. We're standing together," Sekov said.
The citizenship status of the individuals witnesses said were taken away during the operation is not yet clear. Petersburg police had no advance notice about the operation.
One concerned citizen, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, drove to downtown Petersburg after seeing the video online.
"My first immediate feeling and thought was anger, it was like, doesn't make any sense," the person said. "There's a few of us out here, at least just looking to get in between and keep them from harassing people who are, you know, American citizens. People don't deserve be harassed."
Witnesses reported that the federal agents spent approximately 30 minutes on Union Street before leaving the area.
While ICE operations are not new in Virginia, sources indicated that some city leaders believed this was the first time ICE has made arrests in Petersburg in such a highly visible public location.
It's also one of the first operations since nationwide protests following the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of an ICE officer.
Neither police nor city leaders agreed to speak on camera about the ICE operation.
In June 2025, Governor Glenn Youngkin addressed ICE arrests in Virginia stating: "We have a statewide collaboration and partnership between state police and I and ICE and FBI and DEA working to make sure that violent criminals who are here illegally are arrested."
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that starting Feb. 1 he will deny federal funding to any states that are home to local governments resisting his administration's immigration policies, expanding on previous threats to cut off resources to the so-called sanctuary cities themselves.
Such an action could have far-reaching impacts across the U.S., potentially even in places that aren't particularly friendly to noncitizens. Two previous efforts by Trump to cut off some funding for sanctuary jurisdictions were shut down by courts.
"Starting Feb. 1, we're not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities, because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens and it breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come," he said. "So we're not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary cities."
Back in Washington, Trump was asked by reporters what kind of funding would be affected on Feb 1: "You'll see," he said. "It'll be significant."
There is no strict definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities, but the terms generally describe limited cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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