Virginia’s Governor, Abigail Spanberger, has taken a significant step by annulling a previous executive order that mandated local law enforcement to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This marks a shift away from policies implemented by her predecessor, former Governor Glenn Youngkin.
“This Executive Order rescinds Executive Order 47. State and local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws,” Spanberger said. “It is a responsibility of federal law enforcement. Virginia state and local enforcement officers must be able to focus on their core responsibilities, investigating crime and community policing.”
In February 2025, then-Governor Youngkin had enacted an executive order which instructed the Virginia State Police and Department of Corrections to engage in Section 287(g) agreements with ICE. This federal program is designed to train and empower police forces to coordinate their local arrests with ICE operations, effectively enhancing the enforcement of immigration laws at the state level.
However, Governor Spanberger’s recent directive overturns Youngkin’s Executive Order No. 47, emphasizing that state and local law enforcement should concentrate on their primary duties. These include investigating crimes, maintaining jail operations, and fostering community relationships, rather than enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
Spanberger’s order highlights a concern that, since 2025, Virginia has faced a shortage of essential public safety resources. The previous directive, according to the new order, had compelled state and local law enforcement to divert their already limited resources towards federal immigration enforcement, which Spanberger aims to rectify by refocusing these efforts on core public safety responsibilities.
It also directs “the Secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security to request a certification from local and regional jail authorities confirming their full cooperation with ICE and that they will cooperate with the Section 287(g) VSP Task Force.”
The “federal 287(g) program” was described as training and authorizing “police forces to link their local arrests with ICE.”
Spanberger’s executive order, which repealed Youngkin’s Executive Order No. 47, states that state and local law enforcement officials should “be focused on their core responsibilities of investigating and deterring criminal activity, staffing jails, and community engagement.”
“Since 2025, Virginians have been deprived of critical public safety resources due to the directives in Executive Order No. 47 (2025) that require and encourage state and local law enforcement to divert their limited resources for use in enforcing federal civil immigration laws,” Spanberger’s order states.
In an interview with the Virginia Mercury prior to the gubernatorial election in November, Spanberger confirmed that if elected, she would rescind Youngkin’s order that directed local law enforcement officials to cooperate with ICE regarding identifying and apprehending illegal aliens in the state.
Though Spanberger acknowledged that the “immigration system is absolutely broken,” she said it was a “misuse” of resources to take “local police officers or local sheriff’s deputies” away from their regular responsibilities to help ICE officials.
“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 jail or investigating real crimes, so that they can go and tear families apart… that is a misuse of those resources,” Spanberger said.
