Homan Warns Gov. Spanberger Against Blocking Virginia Police Cooperation With ICE

Border czar Tom Homan criticized Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger for her decision to block local police departments from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detaining illegal immigrants.

Spanberger should “take a page out of the Minnesota chapter we did when [the] president sent me to Minneapolis and get more cooperation with the county jailers, which means less public safety threats in the communities,” Homan said in an April 9 interview with Fox News.

President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 26 that he was sending Homan to Minnesota, which had seen clashes between federal agents and demonstrators during enforcement operations.

Trump’s decision came after a federal agent fatally shot an anti-immigration enforcement protester on Jan. 24 in self-defense. Just a few days after being sent to Minnesota, Homan announced on Jan. 29 that state and city officials had agreed to honor ICE detainers in Minnesota prisons.

In his interview, Homan said he was “hoping that she pays attention [to] how we dealt with Minnesota, which was a win all the way around,” referring to Spanberger.

“So, we’re going to keep fighting it,” Homan said, referring to Virginia blocking local agency cooperation with ICE.

“ICE is not going to stop enforcing the law.”

Homan said that in jurisdictions that continue to uphold sanctuary laws, “we’ll just send more teams into the streets, into the neighborhoods. Because we’re going to do the job that President Trump promised—to make this country safe again, especially against illegal aliens that committed other crimes while they’re here.”

“These people are in the country legally. They commit a serious crime, public safety crime, and the local jurisdiction chooses to release them into the community rather than turning them over to ICE. It’s ridiculous,” he added.

Spanberger signed the order directing the state’s police departments to end partnerships with ICE for arresting illegal immigrants on Feb. 4.

These agreements, which fall under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allowed state and local officers, under ICE supervision, to detain suspected illegal immigrants. The officers could make such arrests both during ICE operations and when the illegal immigrants were imprisoned for other crimes. The agreements were instituted by former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Democrats have been critical of Section 287(g) amid their opposition to the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy targeting illegal immigrants.

In her directive, Spanberger said: “Section 287(g) Agreements, per the language of the agreements, improperly cede accountability and discretion over Virginia law enforcement to the federal government.

“Virginians deserve to have their state and local law enforcement resources devoted to the safety and security of their communities, not federal civil immigration enforcement.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the governor’s office for comment on Homan’s remarks, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Safety Risk for Virginia

In a Feb. 24 statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) criticized Spanberger’s order, warning that terminating all 287(g) agreements in Virginia would make the state less safe.

DHS argued that seven out of the 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE. Sanctuary policies releasing criminals from jails to neighborhoods are playing “Russian Roulette with American lives,” the statement said.

“ICE under President Trump’s leadership is targeting criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations Lauren Bis said.

“At every step on the way to make America safe again, sanctuary politicians—including Abigail Spanberger—have tried to slow ICE down and chosen to release criminals from their jails into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.”

Seven states—Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maine—had already banned signing 287(g) agreements with ICE.

Meanwhile, ICE has lodged multiple arrest detainer requests in Virginia over the past weeks for taking custody of criminal illegal immigrants.

On March 31, DHS announced that ICE filed a detainer requesting politicians from the state’s Fairfax County not to release an illegal immigrant from Guatemala whom the county police department had arrested on charges of second-degree murder.

On April 1, DHS said another detainer was filed asking Virginia politicians not to release an illegal alien onto the streets after he was alleged to have murdered his 3-month-old daughter.