Greene County Sheriff's Office deputies and federal immigration enforcement stage a traffic stop on US 29 June 23. Photo by Andrew Young
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office conducted a large-scale immigration enforcement operation near the intersection of Routes 29 and 33 in Ruckersville on June 23.
“I just saw them pull someone over right now where I’m sitting,” says Andrew Young, an environmental lawyer who drove to the scene to document and offer legal aid after seeing reports online. “They’re everywhere up here, literally. I can’t convey how dense the ICE presence is right here.”
It was not clear at press time how many people had been detained. The Greene County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
Young provided C-VILLE with multiple photographs showing federal officials, some wearing facemasks, and people wearing sheriff’s office gear conducting traffic stops. Geotagging on the photos and depicted landmarks show stops at various locations along U.S. 29N and the intersection of Spotswood Trail and Stanardsville By-Pass.
Young reported that ICE agents were riding in the back of Greene County Sheriff’s vehicles as deputies pulled people over for traffic stops. When he visited the sheriff’s office, he says he saw ICE vehicles filling the parking lot at the back of the office “where they’re processing people and transporting them out” in white vans. Photos provided by Young of masked federal officers and a white transport van have embedded coordinates placing them at the sheriff’s office.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed SB352, which amends the Code of Virginia to largely prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings, on May 20. The United States Department of Justice is currently suing the state of Virginia over the new law.
Young says Greene County Sheriff Steve Smith came out of the office and told him to leave or be arrested. “I said, ‘You have a very unusual arrangement going on here, with ICE riding along with you doing immigration control,’” Young says. “And [Smith] said, ‘Oh, they’re just here to support us, much like in D.C.’”
The Greene County Sheriff has a 287(g) agreement with ICE under the agency’s “task force model,” in which local law enforcement officers “enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties,” according to ICE.
Greene County’s operation took place eight days before new state laws barring local law enforcement from participating in such agreements, or otherwise assisting federal immigration authorities in most circumstances, take effect. Spanberger signed HB1441 into law April 22.
Young says he told Smith, “‘This is Virginia, where what you’re doing is illegal, and the governor said that you’re not allowed to do this.’ He said, ‘I don’t care what the governor says.’” In a video Young provided, captured after that incident, an offscreen official who identifies himself as Smith confirms that he made that remark.
After leaving the sheriff’s office, Young says he was tailed by a black SUV until he pulled over to let it pass. Heading south from the sheriff’s office on Spotswood Trail, Young says he saw another checkpoint operated by sheriff’s deputies and ICE.
“I honked my horn again, and I took a photo of them,” Young says, after which he says a deputy pulled him over. He says deputies made him wait by the side of the road for at least 40 minutes. “Three ICE agents came out of the car with their handguns drawn,” Young says; two remained near his car, while the third returned to their vehicle.
In a video Young provided, he describes armed ICE officers to a sheriff’s deputy. A man who identifies himself as Smith arrives while Young is sitting in his vehicle. Smith says he had no prior knowledge that Young had been stopped until a call alerted him.
Young tells Smith he’s called the state police; Young says the local 911 dispatcher told him “no promises” when he asked them to summon state police to the scene and told them ICE agents were holding him at gunpoint. He says state police never showed up. A Virginia State Police spokesperson said the agency had not received any calls related to the Greene County traffic stops.
Summonses provided by Young show that the sheriff’s office charged him with “improper use of horn,” using a handheld device while driving, and failure to yield to emergency vehicles. While the charges are relatively minor, they carry at least six driver demerit points if Young is convicted, per the Department of Motor Vehicles website. Points stack over time and stay on a driver’s record for a set period depending on the specific offense committed. Accruing 12 demerits within a year results in a mandatory driver improvement clinic, while 18 points results in a temporarily suspended license.
“Every single person I saw pulled over was non-white, besides me,” Young says. “But the sheriff said that they were pulling over not just non-white people.”
“There were so many empty vehicles on the side of 29 and 33,” Young says, emotion evident in his voice. “I’m watching a tow truck pull away one right now. That’s pretty haunting. There’s just dozens of cars that have been left.”
Multiple towing companies in the area confirmed towing at least 10 vehicles after they received calls from the sheriff’s office to retrieve them. No company reported receiving advance notice of the enforcement operation. One company told C-VILLE the sheriff’s office told them the vehicles needed to be towed following arrests for “driving without a license.”
“This is the most un-American stuff I’ve ever witnessed,” Young says, “and I’m not scared of these losers.”
