Prompted by recent ICE actions, Charlottesville Del. Katrina Callsen has introduced legislation regulating civil arrests in courthouses.
Amid a nationwide reckoning with Trump-era immigration policy, the Virginia General Assembly is weighing a slate of legislation regulating immigration enforcement in the Commonwealth.
Charlottesville representatives are among those championing the legislation, including Del. Katrina Callsen and Sen. Creigh Deeds. Both legislators cite ICE detentions in the Albemarle County Courthouse last April as the impetus.
Callsen’s HB650 and its state Senate equivalent, SB351, place limitations on civil arrests in, and in transit to, courthouses. The legislation extends protections to those required to attend court, their family, and their household members. The bill further requires officers conducting any civil arrest in a courthouse to provide identification and a validated judicial warrant or order authorizing the arrest.
At press time, HB650 has been assigned to a House Public Safety subcommittee.
“These are civil arrests that are happening. There’s really no reason, no circumstances, that [ICE] needs to come and jeopardize the safety of citizens and our courthouses and our trials for that type of enforcement activity,” says Callsen. “There is precedent for protecting our court spaces. States are tasked with that obligation, and a similar law has passed in New York and has withstood judicial scrutiny.”
Callsen is optimistic about HB650, but notes that not all immigration legislation is “faring as well, because it’s actually really hard to legislate around federal law.”
SB351 is also progressing through the state Senate. After committee members altered its language, the bill passed the Courts of Justice Committee along party lines. SB352, which restricts state and federal law enforcement wearing face masks while conducting official duties, also passed the committee along party lines. Deeds, who sits on the committee, says his Republican colleagues’ arguments against the bills aren’t anything new.
“A lot of these people, like a lot of the Republicans in Washington, are afraid of being on Donald Trump’s bad side,” says Deeds. “The boiler plate that was regurgitated by the Republicans was not anything unique. They didn’t present any unique arguments. It’s just the typical pro-law enforcement and … anti-immigrant sort of nonsense.”
At press time, SB352 has been referred with amendments to the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations. HB7, the House equivalent, was referred to the House Public Safety Committee upon its prefiling on November 20.
Deeds is also following the status of SB783. The legislation, as originally proposed, would stop Virginia law enforcement from entering into, extending, or renewing contracts authorizing local law enforcement to conduct federal immigration enforcement operations. It underwent significant edits in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, with a January 30 supplement heavily regulating the contracts.
“We were afraid of the pushback from localities. … We rewrote that bill to say we’re not telling you what to do, but we’re telling you you can’t enter into an agreement with ICE unless they’re going to play by our rules,” says Deeds. “We made it very unlikely that ICE is going to want to go and enter into any agreement with a Virginia locality.”
To enter into a contract under the newly rewritten bill, state law enforcement agencies would need ICE to agree to provide a list of the names and ranks of all federal agents in Virginia carrying out immigration enforcement seven days before any activity, display clear visual identification as ICE when conducting operations, and stop asking for any person’s immigration status without a valid judicial warrant.
More information on bills affecting potential ICE operations in Virginia can be found on the Virginia State Legislative Information System.
