Protesters hold signs outside Richmond City Hall on Aug. 11, 2025, during a rally against recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions, calling for the city to bar local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)
Republicans wasted no time pouncing on Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger’s promise to rescind Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directive that requires Virginia law enforcement to help federal immigration authorities, casting it as a dangerous move that would undermine public safety and turn the state into a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants.
The former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman said in an interview with The Mercury published Wednesday that if elected, she would rescind Youngkin’s Executive Order 47, which requires state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The directive, issued in February, ordered the Virginia State Police to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with arrests and created a Homeland Security Task Force to expand coordination on gang and immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday, Republicans framed Spanberger’s position as a liability in the high-stakes governor’s race. Youngkin took to social media, warning Virginians that her first move in office would jeopardize their safety.
“In her very first act as governor, @SpanbergerForVA promises to turn Virginia into a sanctuary state for dangerous illegal immigrants,” Youngkin wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “@winwithwinsome promises to keep dangerous criminals off our streets. Could the choice be any more clear, Virginia? Your safety is on the ballot this November.”
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor and Spanberger’s opponent, echoed the criticism in sharper terms.
Pointing to the Democrat’s opposition in Congress to the Laken Riley Act — legislation requiring detention of certain undocumented immigrants charged with crimes — Earle-Sears argued her rival had consistently sided against law enforcement.
“Abigail Spanberger voted against the Laken Riley Act after Laken was murdered by an illegal immigrant,” Earle-Sears posted on X. “Now she says her first act as governor will be to stop State Police from helping ICE. Abigail puts criminals over Virginians. Every. Single. Time.”
In the interview, Spanberger argued Youngkin’s order diverts state resources from local policing and erodes trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement. She said Virginia should not “politicize” immigration enforcement at the expense of community safety. But Republicans contend her stance reflects a pattern of being soft on crime.
Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, said rescinding the order “isn’t about compassion. It’s about weakening immigration enforcement and making Virginia less safe.”
In a statement, Kilgore said Youngkin’s order “gave our sheriffs and state police the tools they need to keep criminal illegal immigrants off our streets. That’s not politics. That’s public safety.”
He accused Spanberger of putting ideology over security, adding: “A Republican House of Delegates will stop her. Republicans will always stand with the men and women protecting our communities.”
The GOP’s coordinated response reflects the central role immigration is likely to play in the fall campaign. Youngkin has made the issue a signature of his final year in office, spotlighting ICE courthouse arrests and multi-agency sweeps targeting alleged gang members and undocumented immigrants.
His administration has insisted the cooperation agreements with federal agents are critical to public safety, though Democrats have questioned the scope of the arrests and their impact on immigrant families.
Republican strategists also see an opportunity to repeat their 2021 playbook, when a single debate remark by then-the Democratic nominee and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe about parents and schools fueled a wave of suburban backlash that helped clear Youngkin’s path to the Governor’s Mansion.
Sean Spicer, former White House communications director during President Donald Trump’s first term, likened Spanberger’s vow to undo Youngkin’s directive to McAuliffe’s fateful comment.
On X, Spicer called it “her Terry McAuliffe moment,” implying that Spanberger had handed Republicans a potent soundbite to mobilize voters concerned about border security and crime.
Earle-Sears, an immigrant from Jamaica who often highlights her own journey to citizenship, has made law-and-order themes central to her campaign. By tying Spanberger to opposition of both the Laken Riley Act and Youngkin’s enforcement order, she is sharpening a contrast Republicans believe will resonate in battleground suburbs and rural communities alike.
For Spanberger, who has emphasized pragmatism and bipartisan credentials in Washington, the backlash underscores the political risks of tackling immigration enforcement head-on in a state still divided over its role in local policing.
In the interview, she argued that Youngkin’s directive was more about national politics than Virginia’s needs, and that communities are safer when immigrants can report crimes without fear of deportation.
“The idea that we would take local police officers or local sheriff’s deputies in amid all the things that they have to do, like community policing or staffing our jails or investigating real crimes, so that they can go and tear families apart … that is a misuse of those resources,” Spanberger said.
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Author: Markus Schmidt
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