Youngkin rips Virginia’s sanctuary sheriffs, ‘neglecting their duty’

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin , fed up with liberal sheriffs in the commonwealth, ripped those that claim sanctuary status and refuse to turn over criminal illegal migrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Without mentioning a specific county government or sheriff, Youngkin said on X, “Virginia is not a sanctuary state. It is unacceptable that local officials refuse to cooperate with ICE in holding illegal immigrants accountable. They are neglecting their duty to serve and protect Virginians and putting our entire commonwealth at risk.”

Sheriffs in northern Virginia have led in ignoring requests by ICE to detain criminal illegal immigrants instead of releasing them and forcing the federal force to hunt them down for deportation.

Virginia is not a sanctuary state.

It is unacceptable that local officials refuse to cooperate with ICE in holding illegal immigrants accountable. They are neglecting their duty to serve and protect Virginians and putting our entire Commonwealth at risk. https://t.co/d8qhRl5DT7

ICE says that it is safest for the migrant and its officers to conduct a handoff inside police headquarters instead of crime-ridden streets and neighborhoods where illegal immigrants hide.

Youngkin’s statement emphasized a memo from Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares today that said Virginia has no rules barring local police from cooperating with ICE. Several liberal states do, making them so-called sanctuary states for illegal immigrants.

“I just issued an AG Opinion affirming that there is no legal barrier preventing local and state law enforcement in Virginia from cooperating with federal immigration agencies when detaining illegal immigrants,” Miyares said of his four-page memo.

🚨 ICE says they arrested a Bolivian national convicted of sex crimes against a Virginia child and that the Fairfax County Sheriff refused to honor three immigration detainers and released the convicted sex offender back into the community.

- ERO Washington, DC. says they lodged… pic.twitter.com/3tcF4A6O6Q

Several counties in Virginia have recently been added to a national map of sanctuary jurisdictions produced by the Center for Immigration Studies. Some, however, have pushed back and claimed that they are not sanctuaries and that they do work with ICE.

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Liberal Fairfax County, home to many federal workers in Washington, D.C ., has a reputation for thumbing its nose at ICE and its “detainers,” or requests to hold illegal criminals for ICE officers to pick up.

According to a recent report, just three of the 725 illegal migrant inmates at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center sought by ICE were turned over, drawing criticism from ICE.