Since Abigail Spanberger became the 75th governor of the Old Dominion, she has sought to make Virginia the new face of the movement for “sanctuary states.” While allegedly agreeing to “comply with federal law” and “cooperate with lawful federal immigration enforcement,” Gov. Spanberger’s recent May 20 Executive Order 16 is yet one more attempt to obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
The order aims to restrict the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at state property, hospitals, schools, and polling locations. This follows upon Spanberger’s very first executive directive, which rescinded all Virginia state agencies’ law enforcement agreements with ICE instituted previously under Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She also recently signed a bill passed by the General Assembly to restrict law enforcement officers from wearing masks. In every way, Spanberger is seeking to obstruct federal immigration enforcement, which only highlights the greater need for federal pressure on Virginia to achieve mass deportations of illegal aliens and basic protection for American citizens.
In her Executive Order 16, Spanberger claimed, “Kids in elementary school are afraid to get on the bus, neighbors fear being targeted based on their appearance at the grocery store, and workers are not showing up at their jobs.” This misleading emotional appeal echoes astounding remarks made on May 14 by the Cato Institute’s David Bier. Bier exhorted the Trump administration to “give up on the mass deportation fantasy” and claimed that “about one in five Fairfax residents is someone who could be deported or who lives with them. It would destroy neighborhoods, rip Americans away from their spouses, parents, friends, families, customers, employees, employers, nurses, nannies, and teachers.”
If true, this shocking statistic highlights the issue that we do not even accurately know the true number of illegal aliens residing in the United States, though the number is surely higher than any official estimates issued by politicians and think tanks over the past few decades.
While warning about the devastating personal and economic consequences of mass deportations, antagonists like Spanberger and Bier make no attempt to distinguish between American citizens and noncitizen illegal aliens. What “Americans” are they talking about who will be jeopardized by immigration enforcement? Even for those aliens previously granted Temporary Protected Status or immigration parole, the federal government can revoke that — as the Trump administration has sought to do — which means they can also be removed from the country. The emotional appeal against immigration enforcement relies on the belief that once someone steps foot on American soil, he has an indelible right to remain here, regardless of his citizenship, history, or ancestry.
According to Bier, we cannot enforce federal immigration law and achieve mass deportations simply because we have too many lawbreakers already here. If anything, such claims should have the opposite effect of that intended: to demonstrate the radical need for law enforcement, rather than discourage any attempts to deport illegals.
If it’s true that one in five Fairfax residents is an illegal or is closely connected with an illegal alien, then what does that mean for the census and for the distribution of seats for the local, state, and federal government? If Fairfax County has such an outsized portion of illegal residents and workers, it suggests its political representation is unlawfully inflated — a reality Democrats are certainly aware of and willing to exploit.
Realistically, a massive population of illegal aliens is economically bad for America when we actually consider the interests of American citizens and taxpayers. An increased population of illegal aliens means more competition for jobs, especially low-skilled jobs, which drives wages down. It means more competition for housing, driving up rental and home prices. It means more competition for goods and services, driving up general prices for consumers. It means more strain on public services like schools, hospitals, and law enforcement.
Perhaps most importantly, more than half of legal and illegal immigrant households in the U.S. rely on one or more welfare programs, according to data compiled and released by White Papers Policy Institute. Why should American taxpayers be forced to pay for such welfare programs? Immigrants relying heavily on welfare ought to provide a serious incentive to end both legal and illegal immigration to the country.
While the horrific consequences of so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions have been felt all across America, Fairfax County has certainly become a focal point, even prompting a recent hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Given Spanberger’s “sanctuary” stance, as well as that of the local Fairfax County officials, the county has continued to release dangerous criminal aliens into the community rather than hand them over to federal agents, in addition to pursuing more lenient charges against alien criminals than they should. Fairfax has released or tried to release illegal aliens accused of child predation, rape, assault, and other crimes, including those who allegedly went on to commit murder in the county.
This is a taste of the consequences of “sanctuary” jurisdictions, consequences which fall most heavily on the innocent. We do not have to live this way.
The federal government has repeatedly requested that Virginia’s state and local authorities cooperate with ICE and federal law enforcement, but this will likely prove an impotent plea unless the Trump administration can put federal pressure on Virginia. This can be done by surging federal agents to the most problematic “sanctuary” jurisdictions, prosecuting fraudulent use of federal programs in the state, investigating corrupt Democrat politicians, withholding funding, or imposing other kinds of penalties. The DOJ should also sue these jurisdictions in court for obstructing federal law enforcement and nullifying the supremacy of federal law over the states.
Virginia’s future appears grim given the trifecta Democrats now possess; in recent decades, almost no state has recovered from full Democrat control, especially since that control usually entails measures like drastically changing the voting laws, appointing leftist judges, and redistricting to preserve their power. If there is to be hope for Virginia at this point, it would seem to lie with President Trump or future right-wing federal administrations. Along with immigration enforcement, federal pressure could include cutting off Democrat patronage in northern Virginia through firing federal workers and cutting federal grants and contracts, continuing the good work the administration has already begun.
Federal rule changes to restrict legal immigration, as the Trump administration has been pursuing, will also help, given how quickly Virginia was transformed demographically and politically by legal immigration. And one of the best measures of all would be for the Republican-controlled Congress (particularly the Senate) to pass the SAVE America Act, which would force Virginia and other blue states to have fair elections with only citizens voting and curtail voter fraud.
With such measures from the federal government, it’s possible we could actually retake blue states and jurisdictions from the left. As long as leftist power persists, it will be a major obstacle to every desired reform on immigration. Contra Gov. Spanberger and other enthusiasts for lawlessness, a great way to improve American neighborhoods like Fairfax County would be to arrest, detain, and deport all the illegal aliens. American citizens — and especially Virginians — should support President Trump and mass deportations.
