Gov. Abigail Spanberger, with an executive order issued on Wednesday terminating existing agreements to work with ICE, is egging on a fight with the Trump regime, but good for her – and good for us – that she’s doing so.
“Today, Virginia is taking important steps to both reaffirm the core responsibilities of our officers and help build public trust in Virginians who wear the badge,” Spanberger, a Democrat elected in November, said in a statement accompanying the public release of the executive order.
The EO directs state law-enforcement agencies and divisions — Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Corrections, Virginia Conservation Police, and Virginia Marine Police — to terminate all existing 287(g) agreements with ICE.
The agreements, entered into by the administration of Spanberger’s MAGA-lite predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, put Virginia law enforcement officers under federal control and supervision to conduct civil immigration enforcement.
ICYMI
We’ve seen the results of these activities in action, most recently in Minnesota, where ICE agents have rounded up scores of innocents in what is effectively a mass roundup of brown-skinned people and Trump regime critics, with two anti-Trump activists shot and killed by Trump thugs.
“As a former federal law-enforcement officer and the daughter of a career law-enforcement officer, I know that effective policing is built on trust. Like so many of Virginia’s law-enforcement officers, I have serious concerns that chaotic federal law-enforcement actions across the country are eroding years of trust built by our officers within the communities they serve,” Spanberger said.
“When state and local law enforcement are pulled away from investigating crimes and upholding our Virginia laws to do the job of federal agents, it weakens their ability to deepen trust within their communities. This contributes to a culture of fear and distrust that makes it harder for officers to do their jobs,” Spanberger said.
In the body of the EO, Spanberger wrote that she had directed her Cabinet to get a handle on the Youngkin agreements with ICE, and determined that the agreements had “improperly ceded discretion and authority over Virginia law enforcement to federal authorities.”
“I have full confidence that Virginia law-enforcement agents are keeping Virginia safer when exercising their authority under Virginia law,” Spanberger wrote in the EO. “Virginia always remains ready to enforce the law, and Virginia law enforcement will continue to exercise available authority under a valid judicial warrant.”
Next question: what Virginia city does Stephen Miller target first?
My guess is Richmond.
From the Archives: ICE
- Minneapolis mayor tells Trump: ‘Operation Metro Surge needs to end’
- Trump regime shuffling deck chairs in White nationalist purge leadership
- The Trump regime brown-skin purge isn’t over, just on hiatus
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Chris Graham
