The mass detentions that hit Ruckersville on June 23 were not the beginning of an effort to expunge undocumented immigrants from our area. According to eyewitnesses and family members of people detained, they were an escalation of a campaign that began weeks or months earlier.
The operation, a joint effort between the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had been active since at least June 2, one detained motorist says. A family member of another subsequently deported person says a sheriff’s deputy stopped him on the morning of June 3, and reported similar sweeps occurring three months ago.
On July 2, The New York Times reported that ICE had surged nationwide detention operations over the past five days, with a goal of arresting 2,000 people per day, every day, for deportation.
“We are not sending any of our crews to do work in Greene County,” says a local source in the construction industry. “We have a number of Hispanic team members as well as a Syrian refugee working for us full time, and I fear for their safety.”
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said the June 23 raids detained 49 people. Greene County Sheriff Steven S. Smith confirmed that his department had cooperated with ICE in the operation. Smith’s office has a 287(g) agreement with ICE that enables close cooperation between the agencies. A new state law taking effect July 1 severely limits and effectively bars these agreements in most circumstances.
In a June 25 interview, Smith expressed doubts that the new law applies to his office, though its text makes clear that it does. “We don’t answer to the governor,” Smith said. “We answer to the citizens of the counties we live in. We were sworn to uphold the law and to protect our citizens, and that’s what I will continue to do.”
Bait and switch
Eyewitnesses, family members, and videos provided to C-VILLE describe and depict Greene County deputies stopping motorists for alleged traffic infractions on June 23, after which ICE and other federal immigration enforcement officers moved in to question drivers and detain those without legal status.
One source, whom we’ll call Alex, says a relative who’s a U.S. citizen was pulled over around 6:10am on June 23 by a sheriff’s deputy, after officers saw the driver filming another traffic stop near the Starbucks at 244 Stoneridge Dr. N, just north of the Route 29-U.S. 33 intersection.
A video they provided of that initial stop shows law enforcement officers surrounding a white van that has been pulled to the roadside. A traffic light, telephone poles, and other surroundings in the video look similar to those around that Starbucks.
“When he crossed the light to head toward Lowe’s,” Alex says, “they were already following him, and the sheriff pulled him over claiming the light was red and that he ran it, but that was not true. The light was yellow.”
Alex says a sheriff’s deputy threatened the driver with felony charges if he did not provide his ID. “The sheriff directly asked about his immigration status. He asked whether he was a citizen or a legal resident. He did not ask for a driver’s license—he asked for his green card.”
According to Alex, the sheriff returned the driver’s ID and “told him everything was fine,” but ICE agents began interrogating him immediately afterward, “asking how he became a citizen.”
In a second video recorded by the driver, an officer in military gear, with a facemask covering everything but his eyes, identifies himself as immigration enforcement to an unidentified driver whom he has stopped in the parking lot of a Lowe’s. Landmarks in the video match those at the store’s location at 385 Stoneridge Dr.
The video shows the masked agent telling the driver, “I hope you weren’t lying.” The driver says a deputy already checked his immigration status. “He’s not an immigration officer. I am,” the agent says. “He pulls over for traffic, I [check] for immigration.” The agent denies the driver’s accusations that he was pulled over because he’s Hispanic, confirms he’s a legal resident, and lets him go.
‘We contribute to this country’
Like others who spoke to C-VILLE for this story, a woman we’ll identify as Lara, 48, agreed to an interview on condition of anonymity, fearing for her safety and that of her family. Lara cleans houses for a living, and is pursuing legal status, though “my petition has been stopped because of the laws right now.” Her brother and her 74-year-old father, whom we’re calling Armand, were detained by ICE the morning of June 3.
Armand, Lara says, had lived in Virginia since 2004. After more than a decade working for a landscaping service in a nearby community, Armand was semi-retired. But Lara says he remained active, including as a volunteer for their Catholic church, visiting sick parishioners. The church that Lara says she and her father attended had no record of him, but a church employee said that was common; undocumented parishioners often don’t register with the church for fear that the information could be used to trace them.
Lara is a single mother, and says Armand, who lived with her, was more like a devoted father than a grandfather to her two now-grown daughters. “My dad has never been so much as pulled over by the police,” Lara says through an interpreter. “He has never committed any crimes. He’s had the best attitude. He follows the rules. He pays his taxes. We contribute to this country.”
A search of Armand’s name in statewide court records found only one potential match: a pair of traffic tickets, for driving without a license and following too closely, issued in 2022 near Richmond to someone with the same first and last name. The first of those tickets was paid in full, while the other was dismissed in traffic court.
Lara says Armand was helping her brother, a Ruckersville resident, with his home landscaping. Armand and her brother drove to Lowe’s around 9am on June 23, and were stopped by a sheriff’s deputy as their vehicle approached the store. Her brother had misplaced his driver’s license, but obtained a temporary paper form from the DMV giving him permission to drive.
“My brothers are so healthy,” Lara says. “They don’t drink beer, they don’t drive over the limit. They’ve been an example to me … They’re people who are doing everything right.”
“When [my brother] was pulled over,” Lara says, “[the sheriff’s deputy] asked him, ‘What country are you from?’ And he told him that he couldn’t say. So they immediately said, ‘You’re arrested.’ And then there [were] immediately other agents that came. My dad said it was four. They asked for their ID and then arrested them.”
While the law says drivers must provide immigration papers if asked for them, “you have the right to remain silent and do not have to discuss your immigration or citizenship status with police, immigration agents, or any other officials,” says the American Civil Liberties Union, in a web page about what to do if you’re stopped in your car. “You do not have to answer questions about where you were born, whether you are a U.S. citizen, or how you entered the country.”
“They treated my dad very poorly,” Lara says. “My dad is 74 years old, and they’re forcing him around, and for a man at that age, it’s very upsetting.”
According to Lara, her father said the immigration officers who arrested him “bumped fists like someone who had won a trophy, like they had done the best.”
“It just hurts that the officials are proud of what they’re doing,” Lara says. “And in Stanardsville, they had a town hall meeting with the sheriff, and my brother’s neighbor asked the sheriff, ‘Why are you doing this? Are you not embarrassed of what you’re doing?’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m only arresting criminals.’ And she said, ‘Well, my neighbors were not criminals.’”
By 1pm that day, Lara says, her father had been detained at the Rockingham Regional Jail in Harrisonburg, which also collaborates with ICE through an intergovernmental service agreement. Lara says Armand was offered a lawyer, but told that he would remain imprisoned for six to 11 months while he waited for his case to be processed. Instead, Armand signed paperwork agreeing to his own deportation.
“That’s terrible, to be in the detention center for that long,” Lara says. “So he signed because he was told that he could be out of the U.S. in five to eight days.”
From Rockingham, Lara says Armand was transferred overnight to Farmville Detention Center, a private for-profit prison operated by CoreCivic. After 10 days, Armand was flown to Mississippi, then to Texas, and then to the Mexican state of Chiapas.
“We’re from Guanajuato, Mexico,” Lara says. “We’re not from [Chiapas]. My dad doesn’t know that area.” Chiapas is a 14-and-a-half-hour, 733-mile drive from Guanajuato.
Lara and her family were lucky enough to find someone who could drive Armand safely to Guanajuato. “ I was crying all night because I would think, ‘Oh, my poor father, he doesn’t have food. He might be cold tonight. He couldn’t call us during all of this.’”
Lara says the ordeal damaged her father’s health. “I think it was the change in temperatures, no food, different areas. He was cold. So he was sick for like a month.” Throughout it all, she says, he never complained, and worried instead about Lara and her family.
The brother arrested with Armand remains in detention. Lara says another brother has been detained without bail by ICE since June 23. “I think he will be released on bail because he doesn’t have a criminal record.” Lara says her mother is “sick in the hospital, because she won’t eat since she found out what’s happened to my dad.”
Parallel accounts
Another person, who we’ll call Bailey, detained by sheriff’s deputies and ICE agreed to speak with C-VILLE on condition of anonymity with the assistance of a translator. Their experiences are nearly identical to that of Lara and her family.
According to Bailey, they were detained on June 2 after an officer with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office pulled over them and one of their relatives.
“I just feel like ICE stopped us without any motive, anything more than the color of our skin,” Bailey says. “They told me that I have a broken taillight on the driver’s side, but that was a lie.”
When they were pulled over, Bailey reports that the interaction began like any other traffic stop. However, when the member of the sheriff’s office approached, other agents also exited the vehicle, identified as a Chevrolet Suburban, and approached it. Bailey does not recall anyone identifying themselves or what agency they were with.
After giving the sheriff’s deputy their license and registration, Bailey says ICE approached both sides of the vehicle while the deputy went to a vehicle marked as belonging to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
“When the [sheriff’s deputy] came back with my documentation, he gave it back to me, and he asked me where I was born,” says Bailey “I told him that I was uncomfortable with answering that question. … When I said that I couldn’t answer that question, he just told me, ‘Okay, you’re under arrest.’”
At that point, Bailey was allegedly handcuffed and put in the back of a sheriff’s office vehicle. Their relative, who was in the passenger seat when they were pulled over, was reportedly questioned alone outside for five to 10 minutes.
Bailey’s relative gave the agents their Consular ID and country of origin. The agents allegedly did not return the ID.
In the squad car, Bailey and their relative were taken to an area behind the Greene County Sheriff’s Office where they were shackled around the wrists, ankles, and stomach while waiting for agents to arrive with more detainees.
“We were waiting for 20 minutes. After that more people arrived, and then they loaded us into a van. After the van was full, they started, like, celebrating—you know how they like fist bump … because they already had their trip full,” Bailey says, reporting five people were in the van initially. “After that they took us to Harrisonburg.”
Bailey was reportedly separated from their relative shortly after arriving in Harrisonburg, then taken for questioning by agents who urged Bailey to sign deportation papers.
“They told me I could either sign voluntarily, and in three months I could possibly apply for a visa, or I could go for the other option, where I will have to go in front of a judge,” says Bailey “They said they didn’t recommend … that because I could be locked up for like a year without bond. I told [the agent] that I was gonna go for the second option. After that they kept questioning me and asking me questions about my family, to which I responded that I will not discuss any matter regarding my family.”
When Bailey refused to sign deportation orders or give information about his family, agents allegedly insisted they needed Bailey’s spouse’s name in case of an emergency—and continued pressing for information.
“The guy next to him, who was with [the agent], told me, ‘Don’t be stubborn. You guys, everything you see in the news is fake. You guys are putting the noose around your neck by yourself by doing this,’” says Bailey “Then he was telling me, ‘Stop being stubborn, you’re not going to have a right for a bond. But that’s what you wanna do? We’re just asking your [spouse’s] name in case of emergency. … Where we’re sending you, what if, like, something happened to you?”
One of the interrogators then reportedly told Bailey they could die at Farmville Detention Center. The conversation then devolved, ending with an agent allegedly throwing papers down and telling Bailey they could “do whatever [they] wanted,” but should eat the food available as there would be no way to take it with them, before walking away.
The agent allegedly returned 20 minutes later, asked again if Bailey would voluntarily sign the orders, then walked off saying something to the effect of “this motherfucker” to another agent when he refused. The agent reportedly came back after questioning the interviewee’s relative and taunted Bailey with their relative’s decision to sign the deportation order.
Bailey was able to contact a family member on a five-minute phone call while in Harrisonburg, updating them on the situation and where Bailey and their relative were heading: Farmville Detention Center.
Inside detention
During a long drive, ICE picked up more people in Chantilly and other localities, bringing the bus’ occupancy to around 18 people. Bailey and their relative arrived in Farmville around midnight.
Bailey and their relative reportedly remained shackled from the time they were behind the Greene County Sheriff’s Office until they got to Farmville. Things did not improve when they arrived at the FDC waiting room.
“They told us that we were gonna be processed, that they were going to give us shoes, overalls, we were supposed to give up our clothes, and they were going to take us to a dorm or something like that. But we waited in the waiting room the whole time,” says Bailey. “Everyone was just sleeping on the concrete floor there [in] the waiting room. … They took us to another waiting room around 9am. We kept with the process, and we pretty much didn’t finish until around 6 or 7pm on Wednesday.”
Bailey was able to stay with their relative through Wednesday, but was then sent away to the dorms. “I told my [relative], well you already signed, you should be on your way to Mexico here soon,” they say. “They told me that, once [the relative] leaves, they will let me know. But I don’t know if they just forgot or just didn’t tell me, but I never got to say bye.”
An employee at ICE’s Farmville Detention Center directed C-VILLE’s questions about how many detainees had been transferred there on June 23 to ICE. During the conversation, male voices in the background could be heard laughing and joking about a “hot date” and talking about “that inside pocket here [in men’s pants] we put our rubbers in.”
The Farmville Detention Center had an average monthly, 24-hour population of 599 people as of March 10, according to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project via records requests and analyzed by the Vera Institute of Justice.
The detention center received an “Acceptable/Adequate” rating for FY25, with six deficiencies identified. Per an Office of Detention Oversight report, FDC improved its facility rating to “Good” during an April 21 to 23 inspection this year, with one deficiency identified in its standards. The sole deficiency found was in the “Medical Care” category, and resulted from one of the detainee files reviewed by ODO having no comprehensive health assessment.
Despite Farmville scoring better on its most recent inspection, Bailey reports conditions inside are subpar. From barely lit dorms to questionable hygiene and privacy standards, the detention center is beyond uncomfortable.
During their time in Farmville, Bailey was only allowed outside for “recreational” three times.
“You just breathe in, and you’re like, ‘I’m actually breathing, you know, natural air,’” they say. “It was eight of us per bunker, and it was like 88 of us in the dorm. We only have like three showers for like 88 of us, like three toilets.”
The interviewee and their dormmates reportedly used chairs to try and establish some level of privacy when using the bathroom, as there are allegedly cameras facing the toilets. Shower stalls are a bit more covered, but the bathroom’s hygiene as described by the interviewee is questionable.
“Where we eat, it was literally right next to the bathrooms. … It was divided by a four[-foot] wall, and I don’t think that’s really hygienic,” Bailey adds. “Also whenever we brush our teeth, we have to use the sink that is kinda the same as the toilet.”
While they were able to leave detention June 17 after their family got in contact with an immigration lawyer, Bailey remains uncertain about the status of their immigration case and bond.
Protecting whom, from what?
“I understand that some people may not agree with every law we are tasked with enforcing,” Smith said in a June 25 Facebook post. “However, our responsibility is not to decide which laws to enforce—it is to enforce the laws and serve our community professionally and fairly. … Whether everyone agrees with our efforts or not, we will continue to do our job with integrity and dedication. I hope the citizens of Greene County feel safe, appreciate the work being done on their behalf, and will continue to support the men and women who serve this community every day.”
Information from the Deportation Data Projects shows 57 administrative arrests were conducted through ICE’s 287(g) program in Virginia in February 2026. There has been a sharp increase in 287(g) arrests in the Commonwealth since Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, according to the dataset, but the rise has not been linear. Data from June 2026 is not available at press time.
Detentions in the region appear to have continued after June 23. ICE stopped at least one person behind the baseball field at Porterfield Park in Orange, Virginia, on Friday, June 26, as captured in a Facebook video. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office does not have a 287(g) agreement with ICE, and received no information about ICE’s operation in Orange before or after the fact, according to public information officer Adam Schienschang.
Using data from ICE and the FBI, a 2017 analysis from the Center for American Progress found that “sanctuary communities,” where local law enforcement does not cooperate in enforcing federal immigration law, are safer and more prosperous than counties like Greene. The study found 35.5 fewer crimes committed per 10,000 people in sanctuary communities compared to their non-sanctuary counterparts. Sanctuary communities also boasted comparatively higher median incomes and lower rates of poverty and unemployment. The study found that these positive effects were strongest in the smallest, most rural areas.
A 2019 study by The Marshall Project found no connection between the presence of undocumented immigrants and a community’s crime rates. And a 2025 analysis by the right-wing Cato Institute showed that incarceration rates for both legal and undocumented immigrants are lower for those of native-born Americans, suggesting that immigrants commit fewer crimes. “Illegal immigrants are half as likely to be incarcerated as native-born Americans, and legal immigrants are 74 percent less likely to be incarcerated,” wrote the study’s author, Alex Nowrasteh.
“I feel like [the sheriff] is doing wrong. … Everyone was congratulating him, saying that he is protecting the community. But he is not,” says Bailey. “We are not criminals, he is treating us like we are criminals. We are hardworking people. … He should focus on the actual criminals that harm the community, not us, the workers.”
“We don’t understand why this is happening,” Lara says. “We are contributing positively and we try to follow the rules here.”
“It’s [at] the point where we just try to avoid that road, because we know that if we go down that road, the sheriff is 100 percent going to stop us,” she says. “And instead of protecting us, he’s just instilling fear. We are terrified.”
