Youngkin Orders VA Police To Assist Trump Admin’s Deportations

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order on Thursday requiring state police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to fast-track the Trump administration’s deportation operations throughout the commonwealth.

“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.

Under the GOP governor’s directive, Virginia State Police (VSP) and Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) are mandated to enter into 287(g) memoranda of understanding with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the latter agency’s website, 287(g) is a section of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act that authorizes ICE “to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency’s direction and oversight.”

Youngkin’s order specifies that VSP’s agreement with ICE will allow its 287(g) Task Force “of federally deputized officers” to aid in the Trump administration’s “identification and apprehension of criminal illegal immigrants who pose a risk to public safety throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Meanwhile, VADOC’s Jail Enforcement Model Program under its 287(g) agreement will “leverage multiple detention and processing facilities” in the state and “train corrections officers to be assigned as Designated Immigration Officers (DIOs).”

The governor further directs the commonwealth’s secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security to reach out to every “Director, Sheriff, or other official in charge of a local or regional jail in … Virginia and request a certification confirming their full cooperation with ICE in all Enforcement and Removal Operations and stating that they will cooperate with the Section 287(g) VSP Task Force.”

“Dangerous criminal illegal immigrants should not be let back into our communities to assault, rape and murder. They should be sent back where they came from,” Youngkin said.

As noted in Thursday’s order, the commonwealth has had its fair share of egregious crimes reportedly committed by illegal aliens who unlawfully entered the United States under the Biden administration.

In August 2023, a foreign national from Nicaragua was detained in Chesapeake after allegedly driving while intoxicated, which resulted in a crash that gave a Virginia police officer a skull fracture and fractured vertebrae. According to local media, the then-30-year-old female said she had “been in the U.S. for about seven months, [and] also was not licensed to drive a vehicle.”

In February 2024, 32-year-old Renzo Mendoza Montes, a Venezuelan national, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in Campbell County. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported, Montes “tried multiple times to illegally enter the U.S. and was eventually admitted to the country by border patrol in September 2023 on the simple promise to show up for a 2025 court date.”

Other reported incidents include two Jordanian nationals attempting to enter Marine Corps Base Quantico in May 2024 and the alleged rape of a woman in Herndon at the hands of a Honduran national with a long rap sheet of criminal activity.

Youngkin’s directive makes Virginia the latest state to enhance its cooperation with federal immigration authorities to expedite the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation empowering state law enforcement to tackle illegal immigration throughout the state. Among the new changes is a provision authorizing penalties to be levied against local officials who refuse or instruct other officials “to refuse to comply with an immigration detainer issued by a federal immigration agency.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also signed immigration-related legislation earlier this month. According to a local NBC affiliate, the measure, among other changes to state law, creates “a centralized team to enforce immigration rules across the state and reform the state’s policies on immigration to better align with President Donald Trump’s goals.”