A U.S. District Court has blocked a newly enacted law in Virginia that bans local police departments from working with U.S. immigration officials.
On August 31, U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia Robert E. Payne issued a preliminary injunction in United States v. Commonwealth of Virginia, blocking enforcement of much of Virginia Code § 15.2-1726.1 (SB 783/HB 1441) which was signed into law by Democrat Virginia Gov. Spanberger on April 22.
The law Spanberger signed required all program 287(g) agreements with the federal government to be rewritten to include the long list of things state Democrats wanted excluded from the contracts, including advance notice of ICE operations, public identification of federal agents, limits on information-sharing, and other provisions.
State law enforcement would also be prevented from working with ICE without a judicial warrant for every illegal detained.
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The law also states that any agreements not so altered are automatically voided and summarily cancelled. This is what Judge Payne especially disagreed with.
Judge Payne’s injunction upholds existing 287(g) agreements to preserve the status quo while current lawsuits over the matter are being adjudicated. And he noted that a full trial on the issue would likely go in the federal government’s favor.
The Department of Justice maintains that the law discriminates against the federal government by abrogating existing contracts and impedes legal immigration enforcement duties.
Democrat Attorney General Jay Jones quickly claimed he would file an appeal to try and prevent Judge Payne’s injunction from taking effect.
“My office strongly disagrees with the judge’s order and will urgently file a motion to stay this ruling and appeal the temporary injunction,” Jones told the media.
“The General Assembly was well within its legal authority to pass this law and to put statutory requirements in place to ensure Virginia’s already resource-constrained localities and law enforcement agencies are not devoting critical resources toward carrying out responsibilities that rest solely with the federal government,” the left-wing AG added.
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