RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia State Police (VSP) and the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) will no longer be required by the governor to have their officers assist the feds in the apprehension of illegal immigrants after new Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger rescinded Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin's executive order 47 on Saturday.
That order sought to enable state law enforcement agencies to be more proactive in immigration enforcement.
“State and local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws,” Spanberger said.
Youngkin issued the order on Feb. 27, 2025, stating he wanted Virginia to use all available methods to facilitate the arrest and deportation of inadmissible and removable criminal illegal immigrants.
The order included three directives:
- The State Police had to create a task force of federally deputized officers to assist in the apprehension of criminal illegal immigrants.
- The Department of Corrections had to train correction officers to be assigned as designated immigration officers.
- The Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security had to contact every director, sheriff or other official in charge of a local jail and request a certification confirming their full cooperation with ICE and stating they would cooperate with the VSP immigration task force.
Since the order, 26 local sheriff's offices and four state agencies entered into agreements with ICE to enforce federal immigration laws.
Zero Virginia police departments are on the list.
Among the Central Virginia sheriff's offices who signed on were Hopewell and Mecklenburg.
Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard said he opted not to participate because of staffing issues.
"For different law enforcement agencies across the nation, it's been very difficult to get to full staffing. I don't know anybody who is at full staffing, and that's my issue, I'm not going to deplete my forces even further by taking them away from my primary duties to do these additional duties," Leonard said.
Leonard said Youngkin's executive order did not mandate that local sheriff's offices or police departments enter into an agreement with the feds to start enforcing federal immigration laws.
"He couldn't mandate how they operated and made it a strong recommendation," Leonard said.
When asked if anything happened to him because he didn't participate, Leonard said nothing happened to him for not signing onto it and he didn't suffer any repercussions.
Leonard said local sheriff's offices and police departments are not impacted by Spanberger's order rescinding Youngkin's order. It only applies to VSP and VADOC, as they will no longer be required by the governor to have their officers assist the feds in the apprehension of illegal immigrants.
Spanberger provided insights into her views on the use of state and local law enforcement to help federal immigration enforcement efforts during her recent appearance on The Stephen Colbert Show.
"What really worries me is the fact that so many of our law enforcement capabilities are being pivoted away from investigating crimes and investigating potential threats that exist within our communities as they are leveraging people to pivot over towards sowing fear in communities," Spanberger said.
House Minority Leader Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore said he still believes local sheriff's offices should help ICE.
"I think they should join. I'm encouraging all my sheriff's offices, if they not already have an agreement with us, to help out. Because, you know, we got to make sure that you know that we're going after these individuals who have these warrants or who have charges and do not come to the country, do not come to our country and uphold our laws. And we want to make sure that those individuals are arrested and ultimately sent back," Kilgore said.
Under Youngkin's executive order, local sheriff's offices and police departments were not mandated to enter into agreements with ICE. Under Governor Spanberger's executive order, they're not banned from entering into agreements with ICE either.
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