Youngkin orders state police, prisons to cooperate with ICE

Gov. Glenn Youngkin is ordering Virginia State Police to set a task force of officers deputized to act with federal immigration officials to identify and arrest illegal immigrants.

In a new executive order, Youngkin also told the state prison system to cooperate with federal immigration agents, including allowing use of detention and processing facilities for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

In addition, the order asks sheriffs and regional jail directors to cooperate with agreements with the federal immigration agency.

“Virginia is not a sanctuary state,” said the order, adding “the nexus between illegal immigration and dangerous criminal activity is real.”

The order cited the death in February 2024 of an Old Dominion University student in a car crash caused by an undocumented immigrant who had been ordered deported six years earlier, as well as the assault of a 14-year-old girl in Campbell County by an undocumented immigrant that same month and the rape of a hiker in Herndon in November allegedly by an undocumented immigrant with some 29 previous encounters with police.

Youngkin’s order said the formal agreements it directs state police and the Department of Corrections to sign with the immigration agency and the local agreements it asks police and sheriffs to make “will bridge the gap between state and local policing and federal immigration policies.”

This cooperation “has become ever more critical given rising concerns over criminal activity linked to transnational criminal organizations and gangs,” the order said.

“As Governor, protecting our citizens is my foremost responsibility and today we are taking action that will make Virginia safer by removing dangerous criminal illegal immigrants from our Commonwealth,” Youngkin said in a statement.

In addition to deputizing state police officers to enforce federal immigration law, the order directs the Department of Corrections to allow the use of detention and processing offices across the state for immigration law enforcement.

Corrections officers would also be trained to be assigned as “Designated Immigration Officers.”

946 inmates

The order said a total of 946 state prison inmates are under federal detainers, which ask that they be turned over to the immigration agency when their sentences are up.

“These detainers are not issued lightly,” the order said. “They indicate that federal immigration authorities have flagged these individuals due to their involvement in serious criminal activities.”

In addition, the order directs the state’s Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to contact every sheriff and director of a regional jail to certify their full cooperation with the federal immigration service in all of its enforcement and deportation operations.

They are also to certify that they will cooperate with a task force of state police officers deputized to enforce immigration law.

The General Assembly rejected Youngkin’s proposed budget amendments that would have cut state funds for jails that do not turn over illegal immigrants to federal officers.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said the order means “working with President Trump, we can take on the scourge of dangerous and violent illegal immigrants.”

Attorney General Jason Miyares said Virginia law enforcement officers have the legal and moral authority to cooperate with federal immigration officers.

“Today’s executive order makes one thing crystal clear,” he said. “If you are present in this country illegally and commit a violent crime, you will be arrested and deported consistent with the law.”