Democrat Abigail Spanberger Doubles Down on Turning Virginia into a Sanctuary State for Illegal Aliens

Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger doubled down on turning Virginia into a sanctuary state for illegal aliens if elected governor.

During an event held by the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, Spanberger was asked how she would “continue to support fair, just, civil immigration reforms while ensuring that Virginia remains as welcoming a place as it has always been.”

Spanberger answered by explaining that “Our immigration system is really broken,” and called for Congress and the federal government to “Enact immigration reform in a meaningful way.”

“The administration is choosing to be highly aggressive in the way they react to that broken system, rather than fixing a broken system” Spanberger added. “And, I have been quite clear that I oppose any sort mandates that require localities to, frankly, do the work of ICE officials.”

“Local police should be doing the job of policing in their communities, and that means investigating crimes, doing community policing, ensuring that they are out doing the search warrants and arrest warrants necessary,” Spanberger said.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller labeled Spanberger’s comments “truly repugnant.”

“This is truly repugnant,” Miller wrote in a post on X. “An ICE detainer asks local police to turn over criminal aliens who have been arrested by local police for a separate crime (eg assault). A Sanctuary City—which Spanberger champions—refuses to transfer custody and instead sets the criminal alien free.”

Breitbart News reported that in an interview with the Virginia Mercury, Spanberger confirmed that she would rescind an Executive Order signed by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) in February, which directed state police, local law enforcement, and jails to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials:

Under the executive order, the Virginia State Police (VSP) and Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) were directed to enter in “Section 287(g) partnerships” with ICE. Additionally, the “Secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security” was directed to “contact every Director, Sheriff, or other official in charge of a local or regional jail in the Commonwealth of Virginia and request a certification confirming their full cooperation with ICE.”

Spanberger told the Virginia Mercury that taking local law enforcement away from their regular duties to help ICE officials was a “misuse of those resources.”

“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.