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Gov. Glenn Youngkin has directed the Virginia State Police, and state and local corrections officials to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement plans.
In an executive order, which was signed Thursday, Youngkin asks for law enforcement to identify people currently incarcerated in Virginia jails and prisons who are flagged for potential deportation.
Youngkin also directed VSP to enter into a “Task Force Model” agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which would allow state troopers to “enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.”
He also ordered the Virginia Department of Corrections to enter a “Jail Enforcement Model” agreement with ICE — which is “designed to identify and process removable immigrants who are incarcerated in state or local correctional facilities.” The state’s public safety secretary was also instructed to contact the head of every local and regional jail in the commonwealth and “request a certification confirming their full cooperation with ICE in all Enforcement and Removal Operations.”
Those models come from Section 287(g), a 1996 addition to the federal Immigration and Nationality Act giving ICE the authority to enter agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws.
Eighty-one agencies nationwide participate in the task force model, according to ICE.
No Virginia law enforcement agencies are currently listed on ICE’s list of participating or pending agencies for any type of delegated immigration enforcement.
The Prince William-Manassas Regional Jail had amemorandum of understanding with ICE between 2007 and 2020, when it did not renew the program.
Youngkin said in his order that nearly 950 people incarcerated in VADOC facilities have open immigration detainers, which “indicate that federal immigration authorities have flagged these individuals due to their involvement in serious criminal activities.”
VPM News has reached out to state and local law enforcement for comment.
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