Both the Democrat and Republican in Virginia’s governor’s race say the state doesn’t have any sanctuary cities — contradicting the Trump administration, which earlier this year fingered two counties as sanctuaries for refusing to fully cooperate with deportations.
But despite their apparent agreement, GOP candidate Ed Gillespie rolled out a new ad Wednesday attacking Democrat Ralph Northam on the issue, saying Mr. Northam opposed legislation that would have prevented sanctuary cities from starting up.
The ad underscores the messy politics of immigration, which President Trump thrust to the forefront during his own 2016 campaign, and has kept their in the months since, demanding an end to sanctuary cities he says protect dangerous illegal immigrants.
Under orders from Mr. Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began producing a name-and-shame list earlier this year detailing jurisdictions that thwarted deportation efforts. Chesterfield County, outside of Richmond, and Arlington County, next to Washington, D.C., both made the list, before it was discontinued.
According to ICE, Chesterfield will share information and turn over illegal immigrants, but won’t hold them for pickup. Arlington, meanwhile, won’t cooperate with federal authorities unless presented with a warrant signed by a judge — a policy that ICE says is impossible. Instead they use probable cause warrants signed by ICE officials — something the county says isn’t good enough.
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, cut Chesterfield County some slack on the issue, saying it doesn’t have a “very egregious policy.”
But she said Arlington County “definitely” counts as a sanctuary because it refuses to honor any requests to hold illegal immigrants for pickup by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Arlington, Virginia and Alexandria, and at times other jurisdictions in Virginia have had sanctuary policies that did interfere with ICE’s ability to do its job,” Mrs. Vaughn said. “So it is a real concern in Virginia that there could be places that undercut immigration enforcement.”
In their debates this year, both Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Northam said they don’t believe any locality in Virginia should be on the list.
“We don’t have sanctuary cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Mr. Northam said at a debate Tuesday, explaining why at lieutenant governor he cast a tie-breaking vote in the state Senate against a bill to crack down on sanctuaries.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” he said of the bill.
Mr. Gillespie, has agreed the state has no sanctuaries, though he still says the legislature should impose a ban to prevent any from cropping up, hinting that gang violence could increase without a ban.
“MS-13 is a menace, yet Ralph Northam voted in favor of sanctuary cities that let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street, increasing the threat of MS-13,” the narrator says in Mr. Gillespie’s new ad.
The Northam camp said Mr. Gillespie was “fear-mongering” and misleading the public.
“Ralph Northam doesn’t care what your immigration status is, if you commit a violent crime, you’re going to prison,” the campaign said.
Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said Virginia jurisdictions shouldn’t be called sanctuaries because they comply with the letter of the law, sharing information with federal officials even if they don’t go the fully cooperate by holding illegal immigrants for pickup.
“They are protecting their citizens and respecting the Constitution. When asked to go further than federal immigration law, it puts municipalities in legal jeopardy for holding a person without due process,” she said.
Mr. Gillespie’s spokesman, meanwhile, said he’s still studying the issue.
“A number of courts are considering the reach and bounds of ICE detainers, and Ed is closely monitoring those cases,” said spokesman David Abrams. “He believes that localities that proactively establish policy of noncompliance with federal immigration authorities should be considered sanctuary cities. Localities should not be thumbing their noses at the federal government and releasing criminals back onto the streets when a legitimate federal request requires otherwise.”
Much of the debate comes down to a debate over the definition of sanctuary city. Arlington County denies they should be classified as such.
“Arlington County has not defined themselves as a sanctuary city,” said Major Susie Doyel, Director of Administration Arlington County Sheriff’s Office. “The Sheriff’s Office does not ’restrict cooperation with ICE.’”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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