ICE arrested over 7,000 people in Virginia in 2025 — nearly seven times the prior year’s total — driven by a rapid expansion of 287(g) agreements that deputized local law enforcement to carry out federal immigration enforcement. New Governor Abigail Spanberger has since pulled state agencies from the program, but 22 local sheriff’s offices remain enrolled.
What happened
Under former Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order mandating state law enforcement cooperation with ICE, Virginia’s participation in the federal 287(g) program expanded to 28 active agreements as of late February 2026. The program deputizes state and local officers to identify, detain, and process undocumented immigrants on behalf of ICE — effectively turning local jails and sheriff’s offices into extensions of the federal deportation apparatus.
The results were dramatic. According to the Deportation Data Project, ICE arrested over 7,000 people in Virginia between January and mid-October 2025 — nearly seven times the number arrested during the same period in 2024. In Loudoun County alone, ICE arrested over 250 immigrants from the local jail in 2025, roughly double the prior year.
An investigation by the Legal Aid Justice Center found that as of December 2025, at least 223 state and local personnel had been nominated to act as immigration enforcement officers, with approximately 157 certified. In one alarming finding, a school security officer and a behavioral health advocate in Washington County, Southwest Virginia, had been granted authority to carry out immigration enforcement.
Why it matters
Virginia is a microcosm of the national fight over immigration enforcement — and the DMV sits at the center of it. The state’s proximity to the nation’s capital, its large and growing immigrant communities in Northern Virginia, and its politically divided geography between the blue urban crescent and the red rural west make it a testing ground for how far local-federal cooperation on immigration can go.
Governor Spanberger moved quickly after taking office on January 17. She signed an executive order rescinding Youngkin’s mandate and later directed all state law enforcement agencies to terminate their 287(g) agreements. But her authority stops at the state line of responsibility — local sheriffs who independently entered agreements can keep them.
For DMV residents, particularly in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, the 287(g) expansion means immigration enforcement has been woven into routine law enforcement encounters. Advocates report that ICE agents have detained individuals inside and outside courthouses, in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, and near school bus stops.
Participating agencies receive federal reimbursement including annual salary and benefits for each trained 287(g) officer, overtime coverage up to 25% of salary, and quarterly performance grants based on the “successful location of illegal aliens” — creating a financial incentive structure that critics say encourages over-enforcement.
What’s next
The Virginia General Assembly debated several immigration bills during its 2026 session, including proposals to ban 287(g) agreements statewide — following California and Illinois, which have already passed such bans. Maryland nearly passed a similar ban last year. Immigration advocates are pressing Spanberger to go further and support legislation that would prevent local sheriffs from participating, rather than relying on executive action that the next governor could reverse.
Meanwhile, the 22 local agreements remain active. With federal reimbursement incentives in place and ICE enforcement showing no signs of slowing, the question for Virginia is whether the political will exists to fundamentally unwind the infrastructure that the Youngkin administration built.
This TANTVNews immigration coverage was made possible by a grant from URL Collective, a nonprofit supporting local, diverse media.
