Youngkin will draft the sanctuary city ban, making state funding conditional on ICE’s cooperation

EXCLUSIVE: virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin will present a budget proposal that bans “sanctuary cities” in his state, as well as ensuring that tax dollars do not go to independent counties or cities that do not comply with ICE.

The proposal would require local police and corrections officers to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests for criminal illegal immigrants and to notify the federal government within two days of the release of anyone who enrolls through the justice system.

Additionally, any municipality that identifies itself as a sanctuary city or enacts similar policies will have state funding normally allocated to support their Richmond-retained police departments.

The Department of Criminal Justice Services, currently led by Youngkin appointee and former Prince William County Officer Jackson Miller, will be recommended to withhold what is called “599 Funding” in this regard.

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“Criminals who are in the United States illegally will be turned over to ICE,” Youngkin told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

“We must stop the cycle of violence and crime that some local governments are enabling. Virginia is not a sanctuary state, and we must be clear that we will not allow localities to become ‘sanctuary cities.'”

The Republican governor, who is term-limited next year under that of Virginia A one-and-done policy, he said if local governments “compete with illegal immigrant groups,” they will see the state taxpayer assistance spike disabled.

The news comes amid recent violent crimes by illegal immigrants in Virginia, most recently the sexual assault of a jogger on a popular Herndon railroad track.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Honduran national Denis Humberto Navarette-Romero was charged with intent to defile and rape a woman on the Old Dominion Trail. The police chief of suburban Washington, DC, said it was the first case of rape by a stranger in his 12 years on the job.

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Critics pointed to Fairfax County’s sanctuary-type policies, as Navarette-Romero had previously been arrested for auto theft and indecent exposure.

In 2018, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid notified ICE that her office will no longer detain inmates past their release dates unless an administrative request to detain suspects is accompanied by a lawful criminal arrest.

Kincaid he told WJLA Earlier this year, his department required that order, after ICE officials criticized a lack of cooperation with the largest population in Virginia County.

Only three of the 725 “undocumented persons” in Fairfax’s custody between July 2023 and July 2024 were transferred to ICE, the outlet reported.

Also in November, the Arlington County Board voted 4-1 in favor of a policy stipulating that police can only notify ICE in cases involving gang members and very serious crimes, according to ArlNow.

The vote came as activists chanted “ICE Out Of Arlington!”

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Alexandria, an independent city, started a policy in 2007 that stated it would not ask about citizenship “beyond what is required by state and federal law.”

In 2017, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney responded to President Trump’s immigration policies by ordering the city’s police department not to agree to participate in ICE cooperative agreements and not to ask on citizenship status “in the interest of public safety”.

Virginia officials have said the state Department of Corrections has always recognized and continues to recognize ICE detainers during Youngkin’s tenure.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly promised a “mass deportation” initiative and has similarly warned sanctuary cities that he will use the power of the federal government to enforce the law.